The Odd Trio: A mega evntually Cartoon Crossover
by Staredcraft
Summary: UPDATED! Revisted and Edited! Join Danny Phantom, JennyXJ9, and Ninjetta Kimi Finster as they meet up for the first time ever! You're in for a wild ride when these three are around! Can they stop the deadly team up of Vlad Plasmius, Former Queen Vexus
1. Prelude

The Odd Trio—Prelude

Amity Park at night, around 10:30. A trio of teenagers are walking down the street. Danny Fenton's hands were shoved into his pockets as he walked forward, dejectedly. Behind him were Tucker Foley, adjusting his trademark red ballcap as he fiddled with his PDA, and Sam Manson, who rolled her dark eyes laconically.

"Man I can't believe I flunked the test...AGAIN!" Danny moaned.

"Well, Danny, if you actually study then you'd do better." Sam said.

"Sam, if Danny took all his time to study, then who would fight all the ghosts?" Tucker responded as his PDA blipped loudly.

"Yeah, Tucker's right, how can I fight ghosts and study?" Danny complained.

Sam sighed. "I know, I know...Whatever."

Tucker and Danny laughed, suddenly Danny gasped and his breath turned cold.

"Ghost time eh?" Tucker asked.

"Yep" Danny said.

Sam looked at her watch, "Gee, they're late tonight."

"Late or not, they're about to get sent home." Danny smiled, "GOING GHOST!"

Suddenly two bright blue glowing bands appeared around him as his eyes started glowing a bright green. Suddenly as they moved, he phased into a black suit with a large silver D on the front, his hair turning snow white.

Danny Phantom Took flight and shot off in the direction his breath came from.

At a Karate School, the glass burst open. A ninja-like figure appeared.

"The fools! They think they know the way of self defense!" The ghost yelled.

"It's time to teach Ninja-boy here a lesson in invasion!" Danny smiled to himself as he shot at the ghost, full speed.

The Ninja Ghost didn't seem to see him, but as soon as Danny got close, the ghost suddenly swung around, grabbed Danny's arm and sent him into the school.

As Sam and Tucker ran up to the fight, they saw the Ninja ghost swing the Phantom into the building.

"Danny!" They yelled.

Danny went intangible and phased through the walls as he flew in the air. He collected himself and flew back.

"Hey, where'd he go?" Danny asked as he noticed the Ninja Ghost was gone.  
Tucker and Sam, who were looking where Danny was sent through, looked back.

Danny sighed. "Aw man."

The next day...

It was a busy day as usual at Casper High School. In the busy hallway, a boy with purple hair was carrying a camera filming while his girlfriend is walking with him. She was a Japanese girl, typically shorter than the boy, with darker purple hair. She was only fourteen, almost fifteen, but still very pretty.

"And here, we have the teenagers practically ignoring the director and his girlfriend," The boy joked, "Because they apparently don't view out-of-town freshman as any sort of threat."

"Tommy." said the girl in an embarrassed sigh. "Must you do that every time?"

"Can't help it, Kimi. I'm the director. Plus, it helps this program some." Tommy responds, "Besides, it wasn't really going anywhere anyway."

"Well, Tommy," Kimi said with a sigh, "The film doesn't really have a theme!"

"Of course it does!" Tommy said, "It's supposed to be a documentary on what American high school students do when they're still at school but not in class."

"Usually," Kimi said, "they're in transit, trying to get to class."

"Yeah, but you gotta do something _while_ you're in transit." Tommy said, "How many times do either of us stop to talk to our friends while we're on our way to class. It's the whole reason they give us fifteen minutes to make it there!"

"You're right," Kimi said, "But nobody's talking to anybody else. Is this a school or a morgue?"

Elsewhere in the hall

"Man, I can't believed I got my butt kicked by that stupid ninja ghost!" complained Danny as he slammed his locker. Sam and Tucker were close by. "I mean, do I always have to be so unlucky!"

"Don't sweat it Danny, that guy looked like he was a little tough." Tucker remarked.

"Yeah, Danny, you shouldn't let yourself feel down just because of one defeat. I mean, you got defeated before and you never let it bring you down before..." Sam said.

Of course, Danny and Tucker weren't listening. They are gawking at a pretty little Asian girl who is chatting with a purple-haired boy with a camera. Sam let out an annoyed sigh.

"Great. What is it with you guys and women?" Sam said annoyed. She goes between the two and knocks both of their heads together, snapping them out of their gawking.

"Huh? What were you saying, Sam?" asked Tucker, groaning while feeling his head.

Sam sighed. "You two were gawking at that girl when it's pretty obvious that her boyfriend is standing right there." Sam explained.

"Well, we are fifteen year old boys, Sam," Danny grinned.

"That kid?" Tucker said cockily, "He isn't that tough looking. I could take him."

Sam glared at Tucker for a moment and then, effortlessly, shoved him down.

Danny looks and sees the boy carrying the camera as the girl walked over to him and gently put her arm around him. "Oh right. I guess."

"Hmm. They don't look very familiar, let's see who they are." Sam said as she drags Danny and Tucker over to the new kids.

"Oh well," Tommy said as he put the lens cap back on the camera, "I guess this one was a bust. Are there any other high schools in Amity Park?" "Nope," Kimi said, "Just this one. The town is too small." Suddenly three high-school students walked right up to them.

"Uh hi…" Tommy said looking up, "Didn't think anyone would noticed us."

"Well, we did." The girl said, said rolling her eyes. She had bluish-black hair, and a black Dumpty-Humpty hoodie on, complimented by rather baggy pants and boots, and her purple eyes were bracketed by dark eyeliner and mascara.

"You guys don't go to this school, do you?" She said.

"Eh, no…" Tommy said nervously, "We go to Jim High."

"It's in Los Angeles," Kimi explained.

"L.A., huh? Sounds interesting," Sam remarked, "So what are your names?"

"Man, where are my manners today?" Tommy smiled weakly, "Uh…my name's Tommy Pickles, and uh…this is my friend Kimi Finster…and uh…this is my camera…I named him Roman."

"You _named_ your _camera_?" Tucker asked incredulously.

"Tucker…" Danny said, rolling his eyes, "My name is Danny Fenton and these two are my friends Tucker Foley and Samantha Manson."

"You can just call me Sam." She added, "So, what's brings you two here? Are you transferring students or something?"

"Not really. We're doing a documentary for high school students to find out how other schools do things," Kimi explained, "And since you three introduced yourselves to us first, maybe you could show us around."

"Sure!" Danny said, "You guys will really like it here…well, you won't like the cafeteria food, but other than that…"

"Eh, cafeteria food is the same wherever you go." Sam said, "I happen to think that it's all made by the same people and then shipped out to different schools. I don't eat it because it makes you stupider!"

"I don't eat it either, I'm trying to keep my girlish figure." Kimi joked, cocking her hips to the side. Sam laughed.

Suddenly, without warning, Danny's pants went ghost. His pants fell to the floor and went back to normal, much to his embarrassment. As Tommy and Kimi gasped, the students in the hall stopped and laughed at the sight. Danny gulps and pulled his pants up, hoping a teacher or someone he knew didn't see him.

"What the heck?" Kimi asked surprised.

"Uh, that sometimes happens." Danny said, embarrassed.

Just then, Danny's breath turned cold.

At the same time, Kimi suddenly felt her Ninja Sense shoot up her spine and emanate out of the sides of her head. Kimi looked around, worriedly. Danny is the only one who notices this. Unfortunately, Kimi noticed Danny's breath.

"What's with you?" Kimi asked nervously.

"Uh…uh…nothing. What's with you?" Danny asked, equally nervous.

"Ok, good. Uh…uh..." Kimi said.

Tucker and Sam looked quizzically at Kimi as Danny chimed in.

"Uh…yeah, right! Gotta go! Bye!" Danny said, bolting off.

"Yeah me too." Kimi said, bolting off as well.

As the two ran off, Tucker quickly turned to Sam.

"Oh man! Danny forgot to take the thermos with him!" Tucker whispered to Sam.

"Well, we better get it to him quick before he gets his butt beat like last time." Sam said, whispering back.

"Well, it's nice meeting you," Sam said, "and we hate to run, but…uh…"

"We better get to class!" Tucker said, "Never hurts to be early!"

"Yeah, bye!" Sam said as she and Tucker bolted off after Danny.

"Well, more time to film." Tommy remarked as he continues his filming.

Danny ran into the bathroom, and made sure no one else was in there.

"Going Ghost!" he said as he phased into ghost mode again.

Kimi also ran into a different girls' room where she removed her coat and revealed her Ninjetta costume.

At the same time, at a dojo, two blocks away.

People are running out of the Dojo screaming as the Ninja Ghost grabbed the sensei and held him above his head. "You call yourself a MASTER! Don't make me laugh!" He cackled as he carried the teacher into the air.

"Hey Kung Phooey!" A voice called. The ghost turned to see Danny, flying in the air, "You got a problem with the way he teaches, send in a complaint slip."

The Ghost glared. "You again! It was foolish of you to challenge me the first time!"

Then the Ninja Ghost tossed the teacher at Danny. "YAAAAUUGH!" The teacher yelled as he sailed through the air.

Danny caught him and set him on the ground safely. Suddenly the Ghost Ninja kicked Danny into a wall. The wall crumbled on him.

The Ninja Ghost laughed. "That was too easy...again."

Suddenly The Ninja Ghost was kicked from behind and knocked down. A white ninja figure spun around, pulled out a sword, and landed on her feet.

Ninjetta stanced herself, brandishing her katana.

The Ninja Ghost got up and looked at her. "Who are you?" He Growled.

The girl smirked as she stood up, her red ribbons whipping around in the wind. "If you don't know, you don't deserve to, spook."

The Ninja Ghost gasped. "That outfit...that stance...you're a member of the Spider-Clan aren't you?"

Ninjetta was confused. "The spider clan!...What the…?"

Before she could finish the Ninja Ghost charged at her.

"I DESPISE THE SPIDER-CLAN! Their best warrior, Shakinako, is the reason I'm a ghost in the first place." He yelled as he charged brandishing his own katana.

"Ah crap!" Ninjetta gulped as she leaped out of the way.

"Great," Ninjetta thought to herself, "of all the Ninja specters for me to fight, it just has to be the enemy of the guy who originally had these powers!"

The two Ninjas clashed in a blade lock as Danny went ghost and got out of the rubble. "Man, that smarts." He said, rubbing his head.

He looked down and saw Ninjetta battling the ghost.

"Oh great," he moaned, "There's two of them. No matter, I've got to take care of that ghost." With that he charged at him.

The Ninja Ghost seemed to look back. Then he smiled and, just as Danny got close, went transparent and seeped into the ground. Danny couldn't stop in time. He charged headlong into Ninjetta sending them into a bunch of garbage cans. Both got up favoring their arms.

"What's your problem?" Ninjetta snapped, "I had that guy all taken care of!"

"ME? What about you? Who the heck are you anyway? This is my town.!" Danny growled.

Ninjetta grunted. "I don't have time for this." She raised her arm and flexed her wrist, shooting out some webbing to a nearby building.

"Hey! You didn't answer my question!" Danny yelled.

"Yeah," She said before she swung off, "And I'm not going to."

With that, Ninjetta sling-shotted off with amazing speed. Danny gasped.

"Whoa," he said in amazement, "I can't even fly that fast!"

Just then Tucker and Sam ran up with the Fenton Thermos. "Danny you forgot this!" Tucker said as he tried to catch his breath.

Sam Gasped as she saw Danny was holding his side. "Danny, what happened?" She ran and caught him as he started to fall.

"Ow" Danny winced as She caught him "Some Ninja girl was here. I was trying to stop the ghost but, then she started fighting him, and we ended up hitting each other." Danny said.

"You mean Amity Park has another superhero running around?" Tucker said as Danny reverted back into his human state.

A few minutes later...

Danny, Sam, and Tucker just finished their latest class at their high school and headed towards lunch.

"So who was that Ninja girl anyway?" asked Tucker.

"I don't know," Danny said, "But from the look of that ghost's face, he does, and they aren't too friendly." Danny remarked.

"Well, whoever she is," Sam said, "She's probably here because of the Ninja Ghost. I say you two should team up and take him out together." Sam remarked.

"But she sort of just…appeared out of nowhere, and then she left like really quickly." Danny remarked, "I mean she shot some sort of rope out of her arm! And them, MAN! Did you see how fast she swung off? She's faster than I am."

"Well, This is interesting to say the least." Said Sam.

Elsewhere in a large corporate building, a man in a button down shirt sat nervously in a chair, speaking to someone behind a desk. The man behind the desk however was hidden in the shadows.

"According to this, our products are selling huge. It's only a matter of time before we may be the largest corporation on the planet," replied the man, putting a manila folder stuffed full of papers on the desk.

"Save the selling rates. Tell me, have your men found them?" asked the figure.

"Well, yes, one. But why do you need the Spiritual Jewels? To sell?" asked the man.

"You just don't get it do you?" The figure sneered, "These Spiritual Jewels you stupidly suggested to sell may be the key to taking over the world. They are scattered in three places so no one would uses them."

"Uh, forgive me for being naïve, sir, but use them for what, exactly?" the man asked sheepishly.

"A legend tells of a demon so powerful that it had to be trapped in a bubble in what is now believed to be the space-time continuum. He was supposedly more powerful than any other mythological demon! If these jewels converge in one spot, it will release him upon humanity, and he will be at the mercy of the one who freed him!"

"But if he's just a _mythological_ demon, then why are we trying to find these jewels that lead to him!" the other man said, "He may note even exist for all we know!"

"Oh he does, and we will find these jewels! Do I make myself clear?" boomed the figure.

"Yes sir. Geez, you sure are strict, aren't you, Mr. Matthews?" asked the man nervously.

Mr. Matthews smirks and leaned forward from the shadows to reveal a cruel looking man in a business suit.

"That is why I am known as...the Shadow Man." remarked Stan Matthews evilly.

As the last bell rang at Casper High School, Sam and Tucker were making their way down the halls.

"Man I'm so glad today's over." Danny said, "Hopefully, I can go home and just crash."

"I wouldn't count on it," Tucker said, "not with that Ninja Ghost running around."

"Don't remind me." Danny sighed.

Sam walked up with Kimi and Tommy close behind.

"Hey guys," Sam said, "They sat in on one of my classes."

"Really?" Danny said, "How'd that go?"

"It was sophomore AP trig," Kimi said, "We were lost."

"And to top it all off," Tommy complained, "these two creepazoids in letterman jackets kept launching spit wads at us."

"That's Dash and Kwan for you." Sam said, "They're a couple of Grade-A bad eggs."

"Man, if your school is like this, imagine what the other schools are gonna be like." Tommy grumbled.

"Aw c'mon Tommy," Danny said, "You just had a run in with the school bully that's all…"

"Hey Fentina!" Dash called.

"Oh great," Danny muttered. Suddenly a gigantic wad of wet toilet paper smacked him in the back of the head.

"Looks like little Fenton is hanging out with the new dorks," Kwan joked as they walked up to the group.

"Watch it, dude," Kimi said, "You're barking up the wrong tree."

"Oooooh," Kwan said as he bent down and talked diminutively to Kimi, "Shortie here wants to act tough."

"I'm happy with my current height, mountain man," Kimi sneered, "At least I don't get brain damage from bonking my head on doorways like you do."

"Yeah…well…" Kwan stammered, "At least I don't…uh…"

Dash came to Kwan's rescue.

"Look, Teeny-Weenie," He said pointing his finger in her face, "I don't know where you come from, but you better watch it, because this is OUR turf!"

"Yeah!" Kwan agreed.

"And if you're gonna talk like that around here," Dash continued, "then you better have the nads to back it up…oh right…you're a girl!"

Dash and Kwan started laughing derisively. Kimi was starting to lose her temper.

"Hey!" Tommy said stepping in front of Dash, "You leave her alone!"

"OH!" Dash said, "You gonna do something about it, Lover boy?"

"And what if I do?" Tommy stood firm.

Dash and Kwan looked at each other and grinned.

"SWIRLIE TIME!"

Dash and Kwan grabbed Tommy and ran off to the bathroom with him.

"Hey!" Danny said as he, Sam, Tucker, and Kimi ran after them.

Danny sprinted off ahead of them and as he did, went intangible.

"Lemme go, you creeps!" Tommy yelled as Dash and Kwan forced him over a toilet.  
Danny phased through the bathroom door and spotted the two bullies trying to shove Tommy's head into the toilet bowl.

"On three!'" Dash said, "One…two…"

Suddenly, Danny grabbed Tommy's leg and phased him into intangibility with him, pulling him out from underneath Kwan and Dash. The two bullies slipped from under their captive and both went screaming, head first, into the toilet bowl. Before Tommy could notice, both he and Danny reverted back to normal.

Dash and Kwan tried to pull their heads out of the bowl, but their heads were two big to come out at the same time.

Seeing that he was out of danger, Tommy breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Danny," He said, "I owe you one."

"Don't mention it," Danny said grinning, pointing to the two football players trying to dislodge their heads from the toilet bowl, "Would you like to do the honors?"

"Don't mind if I do!" Tommy grinned as he flushed the toilet.

Dash and Kwan screamed as their heads were swirled in the murky waters of the toilet bowl.

As the five walked out of the school, Kimi, Sam and Tucker noticed that Danny and Tommy were wearing huge grins on their faces.

Kimi was the first to speak up about it.

"You guys are smiling from ear to ear!" What happened?

"Oh nothing," Tommy said as he and Danny tried not to crack up, "We got away and that's all that matters

"That Dash guy is such a creep!" Kimi growled, "Does he always have to be such a big jerk?"

"Always." Sam remarked, "It's like his entire ethos just to be a complete butthead."

"So anyone want to hit the movies or something?" Tucker asked checking out his electronic organizer.

Just then, a weird-looking van pulls aside the five and an orange haired girl came out.

"Jazz? What do you want?" asked Danny.

"Who is this?" Kimi asked.

"Jazz, Danny's sister." Sam explained.

"Dad wants me to pick you up. One of his friends is visiting and he wants us all to be there." Jazz explained.  
"But I just met some new friends." Danny begins to say.  
"Well, take them with you. Come on!" said Jazz impatiently.  
Danny sighs, and then turns to Tommy and Kimi. "Want to hang out at my house?"  
"Sure." Tommy shrugged, "This could give me a chance to see where one of the students lives."  
"Uhm, we should warn you." Jazz said, "You might see some really weird things. Like things you're not used to seeing"  
"No sweat. Can't be any crazier than my dad's inventions…" Tommy began.

Suddenly a very wet Dash and Kwan ran out of the building.

They didn't look too happy

"FENTOOOOON!" Dash screamed in rage as he ripped the wet toilet paper from of his head, "You and your friend are DEAD!"

"…But right now, I'm not really one to argue!" Tommy said, as he, Kimi, Danny, Sam, and Tucker piled quickly into the van.

Of course, when they got there, Tommy saw that he was wrong.

Tommy and Kimi looked around in astonishment as the whole house was filled with strange looking gadget. In the basement, Danny and Jazz's father, Jack, was working on a new invention with his wife, Maddie, assisting him.

"Excellent! If this invention works, it could solve all our ghost problems!" Jack Fenton said proudly.

"But Jack, you say that every time." Maddie said.

"But this time I mean it, Maddie!"  
"See what Jazz warned you about." Danny told Tommy  
Maddie looked up from her work to see the group walking into the basement.

"Oh, Jack, Look." She smiled, "Danny brought home some new friends."  
"Mom!" said Danny annoyed.

"Relax, son. It's good to see you bringing in some new faces." Jack said. "So, are you going to introduce us?"  
"This is Tommy," Danny said pointing to him and then to Kimi, "And this is Kimi."  
"Hi." Kimi said, looking nervously around.  
"Superb!" Jack said, "This'll give me a chance to show your friends exactly what I'm working on!"

"Dad…c'mon…not now!" Danny asked.  
"You're right, son. I have an old college friend coming to help us. I can tell you right after she gets here. Which should be right about..." Suddenly the doorbell rang, "Now!"

Jack charged upstairs to the front door, and opened it. A white-haired woman in goggles and a yellow lab coat stepped in.

"Nora, it's good to see you again!" Jack said hugging his friend.

"Likewise, Jack." Nora said hugging him back, "It's good to see you again."

"So who's the old bat?" Tucker asked snidely. Sam belted him in the gut. "Ouch! What!"

"Everyone, this is one of my friends, Dr. Norene Wakeman." Jack began, "She's a scientist down in Tremorton. Nora, this is..." Of course, Jack was interrupted once more.

"Maddie, Daniel, and Jasmine, your family, I see. You described them specifically in the last letter." Dr. Wakeman said, walking over to the Fenton kids, "My Daniel and Jasmine, how much you've grown since the last time I saw you!"

"Jazz, the name's Jazz." She corrected, rolling her eyes.

"And I go by Danny," the younger sibling said.

"Oh, I must apologize then!" Dr. Wakeman, "Now that I know you two better, who are all of your friends?"

"Well, this is Sam, and Tucker, and Tommy and Kimi." Danny introduces his friends once more."

"Wonderful!" Dr. Wakeman smiled. "This is perfect! I hope you don't mind but I brought my daughter along, I think you kids would get along great!"

"Well, let her in. We could use a new face." Maddie smiled.

"XJ-9! You can come in now." Dr. Wakeman calls out to outside.  
"XJ-9?" asked Sam and Kimi puzzled.

"My daughter of course." Dr. Wakeman smiled.

To everyone's surprise, walking right through the door was a blue-colored robot that was paying more attention to reading a teen magazine than she was to anything else.  
"Yeah mom?" asked XJ-9.

"Mom!" said Tommy, Kimi, Danny, Sam, and Tucker all at once, freaked out a bit.

XJ-9 moved the magazine out of the way and noticed they were staring at her. "Mom." She sighed. "I told you to ready them BEFORE calling me in! This exactly what I wanted to prevent!"

"Whoops...sorry dear." Prof. Wakeman said as she patted her daughter's arm.

XJ-9 blushed a deep bright blue. "MOM! Stop!" She pulled her hand out. Then she walked up to the teens and put her hand out. "Hi, I'm Jenny." She smiled.

However, none of them took her hand immediately, all of them were too stunned. XJ-9 started to look hurt.

Kimi finally snapped out of it, smiled, and shook her hand. Soon the others did too.

"Amazing!" Tucker said in astonishment as he shook her hand, "It's a fully independent working android!"

Jenny blushed again, "Ah stop, you're embarrassing me!"

Kimi suddenly felt her Ninja Sense shoot up her spine again. Something was wrong. Suddenly danger sirens started blaring. 'Great.' She moaned.

Everyone ran out the door to see a small flying saucer hover over Amity Park.

"A spaceship!" Dr. Wakeman said.

"Do you think it's a ghost spaceship?" Jack asked.

"Oh please." Jazz moaned as she pinched her eyes together.

"Uh…I have to…uh…use the bathroom!" Kimi said, trying to make up an excuse to leave.

"Yeah!" Danny said, also trying to excuse himself to turn into the Phantom "And I've gotta hide!"  
But before Kimi and Danny could bail, Jenny stanced herself for a fight, grinning deviously.  
"Don't worry kids," Jenny said, "This is my area of expertise. I'll handle this!"

Suddenly she jumped up in the air, firing off rocket boosters out of the soles of her feet.

Everyone stared wide-eyed as Jenny shot off toward the saucer.

"Jeez!" Kimi thought, "_I_ can't go _that_ fast!"

The saucer started firing laser beams at her, but Jenny dodged each and every one. Jenny then flew up underneath the saucer and punched out its rocket engine.

Everyone on the ground watched in amazement as Jenny grabbed the side edge of the saucer and started swinging it around and around in circles. Suddenly, she let it go, throwing it far off into the sky. It disappeared from sight rather quickly.

"Back where you came from, bugs!" Jenny yelled, "And don't ever come back!"

"What...was...that?" Sam asked shocked.

"Oh...well...I should have explained." Dr. Wakeman said, "When I built her, I had originally intended for her to be a Global Defense Unit. But then, it began to be more of a labor of love, and pretty soon, I started to refer to her as my 'baby'. I figured, why not make her a real teenage daughter! That way she is a fully functional teenager, a daughter and companionship for me, and a superhero when needed. Therefore her full name on her registration certificate is Global Defense Unit XJ-9 Wakeman." Dr. Wakeman giggled.

"And you named her Jenny for short?" Tucker asked.

"No," Dr. Wakeman said, "She named herself that. I suppose it makes her feel more like a member of society."

Jenny soon returned, gently returning to the ground.  
"See, easy as pie." She said, "Maybe too easy. They might be back."

"I don't think they will," Sam said, "You just killed their engine and sent them hurtling into outer space!"

"Yes, but I sent them on a direct course back to their planet." Jenny shrugged, "They should crash-land back there in the middle of the Capitol Square in about sixteen earth years."

"Sixteen years?" Wakeman said, "Are you _sure_ it was a direct course?"

Jenny sighed, "Okay, okay, I sent them looping around a few planets in the meantime, but it was all in fun, Mom! Honest!"  
Danny and Kimi, who were both still standing there, were still gawking, wide-eyed at Jenny.

Suddenly Danny's pants went intangible again and fell. He was snapped out of his stupor and yanked them back up embarrassedly.

"Eh…sorry." He said.

"Danny, if you can't learn to control your pants better," Jack chided, "I'm going to make you wear the Fenton Belt!"

"No!" Danny said, "Not the Fenton Belt!"  
Wakeman sighed. "Jenny...how about you take Danny and his friends out on the town for a while?"

Jack smiled as she pushed them out. "Yes, you kids have fun until dinner, well see you then!"

Elsewhere...

The Ninja Ghost is by the dock, fuming angrily. He may have avoided captured the last time, but the ninja girl made him furious.

"It has been centuries! Centuries since my death at the hands of Shakinako! And now this girl seems to be his successor!" he raged, "Well, this time I will have my revenge. My death will no longer go unavenged! I must kill the one responsible, or in this case, his successor."

"Nothing shall get in my way!" fumed the Ninja Ghost angrily.

"And I believe I can assist you in your cause." hissed a mysterious voice.

"What! Who goes there!" demanded the Ninja Ghost angrily.

"Relax," The voice hissed again, "First off, I mean no ill will toward you, I assure you. Second, I overheard your ranting and I'm here to assist you."

"How could you help me?" asked the Ninja Ghost doubtfully.

"What if I were to tell you I know of a way to not only get revenge on the ninja girl, but a chance to have a ruling seat, taking over this planet as well?" asked the voice.

"I'm listening." The Ninja Ghost said, quirking his eyebrows.

"Listen well then. Allies of mine are looking for specific items but one of them is out of their reach. A little something called the Fenton Portal. Inside the Fenton Works building is where it is. The ghost boy you defeated twice has used it to send unruly ghosts such as yourself them back to this 'ghost zone'. We would get it ourselves, but with their defenses, I do not think we could be able to get it. But you can go through walls. With your help..." said the voice.

"What makes me think you won't use it to imprison me?" asked the Ninja Ghost suspiciously.

"My dear Ninja warrior! I am a woman of my honor!" said the voice, "Besides, this may be your one and only chance to perfectly exact revenge on the Ninja Girl without that pesky Ghost Boy getting in the way, if you catch my drift."  
The Ninja Ghost thought carefully. Then he nodded.

"Very well." The Ninja Ghost said, standing up, "I shall get you this Fenton Portal. What does it looks like?"

A thin, robotic arm extended from the shadows and handed the Ninja Ghost a schematic of the Fenton Portal.

"Is this too complicated for you to read?" The voice asked.

"Dear woman," The Ninja Ghost said, "I have been around since the third century. I can read everything."

With that, the Ninja Ghost cackled and disappeared in an evanescent vapor.

The evil voice chuckled evilly as it came out of the shadows.

"Perfect. Once the Fenton Portal is ours, the plan to rule the planet will be perfectly fail-safe! Nothing can stop me now!" hissed Queen Vexus evilly as she too, began to cackle evilly.

Later, in town

The new friends were walking down the streets talking and smiling.  
Kimi looked at Jenny. "So, Jenny, uh, what's it like being a..."  
Jenny smiled. "A robot? It's fine and all, no problems...except..." She sighed.

"Except what?" Danny asked.  
"Danny!" Sam glared.  
"What?" Danny asked confused.

"It's fine...it's just...I've always wanted to fit in. I mean...I do have friends and all but I just want to be a part of the IN crowd." She looked off longingly.

"Jenny," Kimi said, "You don't want to be in the IN crowd. What's really important is having real friends who accept you for what you are, rather than what you try to be."

"You know," Jenny said, looking back at her, "You're absolutely right, Kimi."

"BEWARE!" A voice yelled out.  
"Ah no." Danny moaned as his breath went cold again.

Suddenly a rather fat ghost appeared.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! BEWARE!" He yelled.

"Great." Kimi sighed. Kimi ran off down an alley with Tommy following behind and jumped up the building to change. 'I'm not letting Jenny take all the credit this time.' She thought.  
'I better take care of this.' Danny thought as he, Sam and Tucker snuck off too.

Jenny glared at the Box Ghost. "Look you...I don't know who you are but you've scared my new friends away."

The Box Ghost didn't seem to be listening as he was looking at a garbage dumpster. "I shall be haunting YOU from now on!" he wailed.

Jenny sighed irritably.

"Time to take out the trash!" Jenny said as her arm opened up, revealing a laser gun.

Suddenly Ninjetta swung in and landed in front of Jenny.

"Hey garbage boy!" she yelled.  
"WOW! You're Ninjetta!" Jenny yelled in shock.  
Ninjetta was amazed. "You've heard of me?"  
"Yeah, You're like, ALL OVER the teen magazines!" She smiled.  
"Really?" Ninjetta said, "Didn't know I was so popular."

Just then Danny flew in. He glared at the Box Ghost. "Alright you, I'm in a good mood so I'll give you the chance to get out of here."

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!" he hollered.

"Man is he dumber than usual or what?" Tucker asked Sam as they ran back up.

Danny flew at the Box Ghost. At that same time, Ninjetta and Jenny flew in too.

The Box Ghost gasped and disappeared. Ninjetta and Danny rammed into each other again and Jenny accidentally rammed them into a wall. In the pileup, Ninjetta's mask flew off.

Jenny caught it. "Oh my gosh." She flew over. "I am SO sorry I didn't...hey!" Her eyes started to scan Danny Phantom. "Danny?" She asked.

Danny gasped. "Uh...what are you talking about? Danny? Who is this Danny?"

"Don't play games with me," Jenny sighed. "I have a computer memory, my scanning system registers your vital signs as Danny's."

Ninjetta stood up. She realized that she didn't have her mask on. She cupped her hand over her nose and mouth and walked up to Jenny.

"I'll take that," she said in a muffled voice as she took her mask back.

Suddenly, Jenny scanned her

"Oh my Gosh!" Jenny said excitedly, "and you're Kimi!"  
"KIMI!" Everyone else except Tommy gasped.

"Eh...hi..." Kimi said sheepishly as she removed her hand from her face.

Back at the Fenton house, the Fentons and Dr. Wakeman were making dinner, using their various inventions.

Suddenly a shadow loomed over their front door as a dark figure slowly approached.  
The doorbell sounded slowly.

"Who could that be? Are we expecting anyone?" asked Jack puzzled.

"Yes, remember?" Maddie said opening the door, "Professor Membrane couldn't make it today, so I invited over…"

Maddie turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Gaz, sweetie," she said, clutching her heart "You really ought not to look so down, You about scared the living daylights out of me."

"Apologies." Gaz said, the expression on her face not changing, "May I?"

"Of course, of course!" said Maddie happily, "Come right in. May I take your coat?"

"Thank you," Gaz murmured as she took it off, handing it to Maddie, "I apologize for father not being able to show up today. He's busy…like always…idiot."

"Isn't she just a ray of sunshine?" Jack muttered to himself.

"A friend of yours?" Dr. Wakeman asked as she came to see who it is.  
"Actually, she's the daughter of a friend of mine, but she's a friend nevertheless." Maddie said.  
"I'm actually glad you invited me over." Gaz said, "You know I'd love to help out with this little project of yours."

"Mom?" Jazz said as she came downstairs, "have you seen my… YAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

Jazz screamed with fright as she took sight of the dark-looking woman standing in the kitchen.

"Sorry," Gaz said, "I seem to get that reaction a lot."

"So, how long are you staying?" Maddie asked Gaz, "Our son and his friends are out but they should be back in time for dinner."

"Yes, my daughter XJ-9 has gone with Danny and a few of his friends." Dr. Wakeman said, "Oh…what were their names?"

"Well," Maddie explained, "there's, Sam and Tucker of course, and then Tommy and Kimi, I think their names were…"  
At the mention of Tommy and Kimi's names, Gaz's eyebrow raised in interest.

"Tommy and Kimi?" she said, "This wouldn't be Kimi _Finster _would it? Little Japanese girl, about yeh high?"

"You know her?"

"We've…met." Gaz smirked.

Maddie didn't seem to notice.

"Good, Good!" Maddie said, "Nice to know that we are all friends around here."

"Quite." Gaz said with a smile, "Well, maybe I could stay after all."

Amity Park Museum of Natural History

A night watchman was walking the beat as he walks around checking up on a rather large jewel in a case. Satisfied that there's no one around, he walked on to check on the other priceless artifacts in the museum.

As soon as he was out of sight, a small black shadowy figure slunk down from the ceiling. As it came to the floor, it collected itself and crouched down into a more humanoid shape. It looked around warily to make sure there was nobody else coming. Silently, the black figure slunk over to the large jewel case, slithering more than it did walk. As the figure peered up over the pedestal, her eyes glowed with an eerie evil smile.

Her arm rose slowly, in a serpentine fashion, producing a makeup compact. The figure flipped it open and blew the powder out gently, so as not to set off any wind-sensitive motion alarms. As the powder cloud surrounded the case, a net of laser beams weaved around the jewel's case—except for the top of it.

Slowly, the figure backed away from the case. Suddenly, she ran for the case and jumped high in the air, over the laser trip beams, landing on top of the case, with the poise of a jungle cat.

She held out her hand and formed her fingers into long, sharp claws. Using her claws, she slowly cut a circle out of the top of the case, lifting it off carefully. Gently, she reached her hand in, stretching and extending it much farther than humanly possible as she slowly picked up the jewel. As she grasped it, her hand seemed to slowly "swallow" it. When she opened her hand again, there was nothing.  
Suddenly, it bounded off of the case and landed back onto the floor, making not a sound at all. The figure slunk back into the shadows, back up the ceiling, and back out of the window she had cut open the same way she had the glass case.

Once on the roof, the figure opened her hand again, producing the gem. She looked it over and grinned devilishly.

"Perfect." Assassina said quietly with a hiss, "The first Spiritual Jewel is ours."

Meanwhile, our heroes had a problem of their own.

"Kimi!" gasped Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jenny.

"Danny?" asked Kimi.

"Danny?" asked Jenny and Tommy.

"Kimi?" asked Sam.  
"Sam, me Tucker, and Jenny. And repeat." said Tucker. "There, we're all even."

"Tucker!" Everyone said.

"Aw, you messed it up!" Tucker cried.

"Danny? _YOU'RE_ the Ghost Boy?" asked Kimi.

"Well, look who's talking, Miss. Ninja Girl!" snapped Danny.

"Wait, wait, hold on. This is obviously another case of misunderstanding." Jenny said calmly.  
"No misunderstanding here!" Danny said, "She butted in where she doesn't belong!"

"I was trying to stop a villain, is that so wrong?" asked Kimi.

"Yes!" Danny cried, "This is _MY_ town, and they're _MY_ villains!" protested Danny.

"Now hold on!" Tommy said, "You two are on the same side. At least it shows you have a common interest, and that's fighting crime and all the forces of evil. And, so what if you didn't catch the bad guy? That's because each of you were trying to do it for yourself, instead of working together."

Danny and Kimi stopped.

"You know, Tommy?" Danny said, "You're right. I mean, normally I can take the Box Ghost myself easily, but the three of us couldn't even catch him working against each other."

"Right," Jenny said, "So. We're all still friends?"

"You know it," Danny smiled.

"Well," Kimi said, cracking a smile, "We all know each other's secret identities now, so I guess we're sort of bound to each other."

"Speak for yourself," Jenny grinned back, "I don't have a secret identity to worry about."

"Besides, we have something else a LOT BIGGER to worry about." Sam fretted.

"And that is..." Kimi, Danny, and Jenny said together.

"Oh, nothing. Just a bunch of big, scary robots about to attack the town, that's all." Tucker said pointing to the sky.  
The three heroes looked up to see three giant insect-like spaceships hovering over the town is an ominous attack formation.

"Oh my gosh!" Jenny said, "Those look like Cluster warships! But that can't be! Cluster Prime is Earth's ally now!"

"Cluster Prime?" Kimi asked incredulously.

"That sounds like some sort of breakfast cereal!" Danny said.

"Nevermind. I'm going to take care of this, right now!" Jenny said, getting ready for battle.  
"Hold on, Jenny. I'm backing you up." Kimi said, strapping her mask back to her face and drawing her katana.

"Well, it may not be ghosts." Danny smirked, "But they're evil, and they're attacking my town, and that's good enough for me!"

"Let's do this!" Ninjetta yelled, throwing her fist in the air.

"Yeah!" Jenny and Danny yelled, their fists meeting hers.

Back inside the huge office building, Stan Matthews stood at his window, puffing his cigar surveying the city.

Suddenly there was a knock on his office door.

"Enter." Matthews said sternly.

"Excuse me sir," a man said poking his head in timidly, "you're...eh...son…is here."

Matthews puffed out some smoke and turned to the man. "Good...send him in."

The doors flew open and in walked none other than Joxer the Clown.

"Well, Daddy-dearest, I've brought something for you!" he chortled, shoving the intern on the ground.

"Hey, watch where you're going punk!" Joxer said as he suddenly snarled at the intern.

Suddenly, a black serpentine arm reached out and picked the intern up off of his feet.

"You really ought not to get in Joxer's way," Assassina hissed, "He does have a very notoriously short temper, and when he has a short temper…"

Assassina held up her other arm and shape-shifted it into a large kama blade and held it up to the intern's neck.

"Well," Joxer chuckled with a grate in his voice, "Sucks to be _you_, doesn't it?"

"Enough!" Stan Matthews said in an assertive tone, "Enough of this foolishness! Alan, please tell your lady friend to put him down."

Assassina dropped the intern on the ground.

"You survive to live another day." She grated at him, "Now crawl. Crawl away like the insignificant maggot that you are!"

The intern fearfully crawled away on his rear away from Assassina and Joxer.

"Alan, must you always try to kill my bottom-feeders?" Matthews said shaking his head, "You know you're costing me a FORTUNE in covering up things like this up EVERYTIME you show up son."

"I apologize, father," Joxer said soberly, then suddenly flew into a hysteric dementia, "You know, you just get those manly urges, and you just gotta kill something!"

"Well Alan, did you get it?" the elder Matthews asked.

Joxer smiled. "But of course father." He turned to the black ninja standing next to him. "Assassina, if you please."

Held out her hand and reverse-"swallowed" the gem, producing it in the palm of her hand.

Suddenly, Assassina clutched it quickly.

"Someone's here!" she said, "someone else has entered the room; I can feel their presence."

"Oh what," Joxer mocked, "Do you have the Schwartz or something?"

"Silence," Assassina said before turning her direction to the corner of the room, "Apparition, I know you are here, I can see you. Show yourself."

"Dear girl, you've ruined all the fun," Vlad Plasmius said as he appeared into view.

"Ah," Stan Matthews said, "I see you've met my business partner's alter ego. Alan, Assassina, This is Vlad Masters; he's a multi-billionaire who I deal with quite regularly. You're looking at his supernatural form, Plasmius."

"Dear child," Plasmius spoke to Assassina grinning evilly, "I believe you have something that I own partial stock in."

"Plasmius," Assassina spoke firmly, "While my host may be a mere child, I myself am three times as old as you are. So before I relinquish anything to you, know that I am your elder and you shall address me as such."

"I'd listen to her if I were you, old man," Joxer said glaring Plasmius down.

"Please," Plasmius scoffed, "I haven't time for this."

Assassina brought back the kama.

"You had better make time, Apparition." She said, "And before you dare to scoff at this, know that I am just as otherworldly as you, and this _will_ strike you."

Vlad backed off a bit. "Very well then, Assassina." He said, "If you are as powerful as you say, then you would be more fitting an ally than an enemy."

"That's more like it." Assassina said, withdrawing her weapon.

"Now that that's settled," Matthews said, stepping in between the two, "Assassina, if you please, my dear."

"Of course," Assassina said, "I will always respect a gentleman."

"Now then," Matthews said, handing the stone to Plasmius, "I believe this is yours for the time being. I'm sure you know what to do?"

Vlad smiled evilly as he held the gem in his hands. "Yes. At last I'll be able to exact my revenge on that idiotic Jack Fenton and his son!"

Plasmius turned to Assassina.

"You said you can respect a gentleman," Plasmius said, "And with that I thank you."

Plasmius took hold of his cape and bowed to Assassina, and as he did he disappeared in a swirl of vapor.

Assassina glared at Where Plasmius had stood.

"Respect and trust are two entirely different things, Plasmius." She growled, "And hollow sucking up unfortunately doesn't win points with me."

As the Cluster robot freighters loomed over Amity Park, Jenny and Danny charged them. Suddenly out of large bays in the spaceships flew out swarms upon swarms of large robots. Danny and Jenny stopped.

"Oh crap." Danny said, "That's a lot of Cluster Bots"

Jenny turned to Danny with a horrified expression on her face.

"Those aren't Cluster Bots." She said.

"What?" Danny exclaimed, "But you just said…"

Jenny interrupted him.

"Cluster drones look like beetles," Jenny said, "These guys aren't beetles, they're…"

"Praying Mantises!" Danny yelled as they closed in on them.

Jenny's arms opened up and out of them came two large laser guns, and Danny's hands started to glow with a bright green haze, as they got ready to battle. Suddenly as the Mantis robots converged, Jenny and Danny started firing lasers and ectoplasmic energy blasts at them. As they were hit, the Mantises exploded violently. Then the robots behind the first wave started firing energy blasts of their own at the heroes.

Danny growled hard as one hit him. Thankfully it didn't hurt him in ghost form, but it knocked him quite far. Danny flew back up into the fray, avoiding more energy blasts as Jenny fired off her own, taking out three at a time.

Danny cupped his hands together, creating a large red energy ball.

"Hey you overgrown horseflies!" he yelled as he shot the ectoplasmic grenade at them, "Eat this!" The large blast reverberated across the field of enemy robots, blasting a huge hole in their offense.

"Awesome shot, Danny!" Jenny said.

"Jenny, look out!" Danny yelled a warning at her.

Jenny turned back to the fight to see a Mantis charging at her, actually making it through her barrage.

Jenny stopped, jumped in the air and kicked the robot's head off. It crashed to the ground.

"Thanks Danny." She called back.

Suddenly a Mantis grabbed Danny's arm with its large claw.

Danny swung the Mantis around and kicked it hard—square where it's butt would be.

"Get your big grubby claws off me!" He yelled, as the Mantis' arm separated from the rest of him, still attached to Danny. The robot turned around, it's eyes glowing a bright red. Danny yanked the arm off of his and held it at the Mantis.

"Don't make me use this!" he warned. Suddenly a red-and-while flash whizzed between him and the Mantis.

The Mantis started acting strangely, twitching and sparking, before it suddenly broke apart into two clean pieces.

"Eh, warned ya." Danny said as he threw the arm away.

Ninjetta swung by again, jumping on top of a Mantis and slicing it apart with her katana in one single, fluid motion. She bounded off of the Mantis and onto another one, slicing its head off. As Ninjetta jumped off, she noticed that the droid's body stayed hovering in the air, frantically searching around for its head.

As she jumped onto another on, and sliced it in half, she bounded back to the headless Mantis and sliced his arms off. She then webbed the neck and pulled hard on the Mantis' body.

"Whoa there, big fella, Sit still!" She quipped as the Mantis started to buck. But Ninjetta yanked hard on her web again and shot another string at his feet, subduing him.

"I said, sit still!"

Now Ninjetta had a flying platform to stand on as another gang of bugs came to her. She brandished her sword and held out her hand, waving her fingers.

"Bring it." She growled.

As the Mantises attacked her she jumped up. Ninjetta swung around, slicing apart two of them as she roundhouse kicked another, knocking its head and arms off. Quickly, she switched legs and grabbed another Mantis' neck, kicking it three times before sending it into another one.

Another Mantis flew for her legs, but she jumped up, and sliced through the robot with her katana. She kicked the hunk of metal off of her sword and slashed another apart. Ninjetta flipped out of the way as two more crashed into each other below her. She impaled the two of them and sliced the sword out of their bodies before swiftly kicking it into three more attacking Mantises. As she came back down onto her platform, she slashed apart another attacking drone.

Ninjetta sheathed her sword and shot off webbing at six more robots before jumping off of her platform, down to a rooftop below her. She yanked hard on the web and pulled the robots down as they smashed into the street below.

Tommy, Sam and Tucker had taken cover inside the Nasty Burger.

"This is so awesome!" Tommy yelled to Sam and Tucker as he filmed the whole thing.

"Yeah, this is pretty intense!" Tucker agreed, "Those three really make a great team!"

"Uh guys!" Sam said pointing to the sky, "I hate to be a buzzkill, but I think the home team is in trouble!"

Danny and Jenny moved back to back to each other. They were surrounded, but still blasting away.

"This isn't working!" Jenny said, "We're totally out numbered!"

"I have an idea!" Danny said. He blasted off another large energy beam, and grabbed Jenny, flying back to the ground.

"Your idea was to retreat!" Jenny said.

"Cover your ears!" Danny said.

"What?" Jenny exclaimed.

"Cover your ears!"

"I don't have ears!"

"Well cover whatever you hear with!" Danny yelled.

Jenny shut off her sound receivers as Danny turned to the crowd of robots.

"Hope this works," He said to himself as he took in a deep breath.

Suddenly, Danny let out his loud, guttural Ghostly Wail, causing a harsh wave in the air, knocking back all the robots—and Ninjetta. As Ninjetta flew backwards she shot off some webbing toward a light pole and hung on for dear life.

"Could you give a girl a little warning first!" She screamed as the wail reverberated through her.

As the robots all got brushed back by the Wail, they crashed hard into their ships with harsh explosions.

As Danny finished his wail, Ninjetta and Jenny took advantage of the situation. Ninjetta jumped back up onto a roof and shot off large streams of webbing at the ships. Jenny flew up and grabbed the webbing, wrapping it around all three ships, before grabbing them and flinging them off into space, as soon as they were far enough off into the atmosphere, Jenny's chest opened, producing a very large gun. She fired off at the webbed cluster of Cluster ships, obliterating them.

Ninjetta and Jenny landed back onto the ground next to a breathless Danny, high-fiving.

Suddenly, Danny dropped to his knees and phased back to normal.

"Danny!" Jenny and Ninjetta cried as they turned around.

"I'm alright," Danny said, "That attack is just really energy-draining."

As Danny caught his breath, he stood back up and phased back into his ghost form again.

"I hope nobody saw that!" Danny said looking around.

"I'm not picking up many vital signs above ground," Jenny said, "Just you, Ninjetta and your friends. They all must be in shelters or something."

"Danny!" Ninjetta said as she ran up to him, "Are you okay?"

"I think so," Danny said.

"That was amazing, Danny!" Ninjetta said, "I've never seen anything like that!"

Suddenly there was a loud explosion off in the distance. Danny gasped and looked off toward the east side of town.

"Oh no!" he cried! "Home!"

Danny flew off quickly in the direction of the blast.  
"Danny! Wait up!" Jenny cried as she flew after him.  
"Wait for me!" Ninjetta cried as she swung after them.

Tommy, Tucker, and Sam ran out of the Nasty Burger.  
"Hey! What about us?" Tucker asked.

"We've gotta help Danny!" Sam cried as she, Tommy and Tucker took off for Danny's house.

As Danny flew up to his house, a horrible sight took him. The Fenton Works shop and the top half of the town house had been completely blown apart. Danny quickly flew inside to see Jazz lying on the floor. Danny gasped hard and flew down to check her.

"Jazz!" Danny yells, "Jazz! Wake up! Speak to me! Please!"

Jazz stirred stiffly and regained consciousness.

"Danny?" she said lightly, "Danny, is that you?"

"Jazz are you okay?"

Jazz moaned, clutching her head, "Man," she said, "My head is THROBBING!"

"Where are Mom and Dad!" Danny said frantically.

"I don't know!" Jazz said.

Danny picked Jazz up and flew her down to the street to meet the others as Jenny and Ninjetta arrived.

"Sam, Tucker, Tommy!" Danny said to them, "Keep an eye on Jazz and try to keep her awake!"

"Got it, Danny!" Tucker said before the Heroes flew and swung back up into the house.

"What happened here?" Ninjetta exclaimed as they looked at the wrecked house.  
"And where's the creep who's done this?" Jenny demands.  
"Why right here, XJ-9." hissed a voice.

The three turned around to see the evil robot, Vexus, hovering in midair holding Danny's parents in a sort of force field.

Vexus' arm was open, and holding her own laser gun at the Fentons.

"Vexus! I should have known you were behind this!" Jenny yelled furiously, "That spaceship attack was just a ruse!"

"Actually, dear girl," Vexus said, "It was more of a means to get you out of the way permanently. But I can't help it if my drones are incompetent."

"But where did you get a hold of Cluster warships?" Jenny said, "There's no way you could have stolen them, you're Cluster Prime's Public Enemy Number One!"

"Cold storage, my dear girl," Vexus chuckled, "Only I knew where they were."  
"Let them go!" Danny yelled at Vexus.

"Touchy, touchy," Vexus said, "You don't seem to be in the position to be calling orders, Ghost Boy."

"Ah-HA! I was right! There is a ghost among us!" Jack said triumphantly.  
"Silence!" snapped Queen Vexus.

"Let them go, Vexus," Jenny said, "I might not be able to defeat you myself, but With my new friends, we'll be sure to send you back under the asteroid you crawled out from!"

"Don't be so arrogant, XJ-9!" Vexus screamed at her, "While you may have found new friends, I too, have made dangerous new Allies!"  
"That's it," Danny said, charging his energy beams, "Less talk, more fighting!"

Suddenly Vexus fired a blast just in front of Danny's feet.

"Don't be foolish child!" Vexus hissed again, "I possess no program that allows me to feel sympathy or remorse, so I can and WILL destroy your parents without a second thought! Now, young half-human, change back to normal and surrender, or you'll know just how it feels to be orphaned!"

"Don't do it! She is going to do it eventually!" protested Ninjetta.

"I will if you so test me." Queen Vexus continued.

Danny hesitated, and then looked back at his parents.

"Wait," Maddie said, "What do you mean, 'his parents'?"

"Looks like I have no choice." Danny said sadly to Ninjetta and Jenny. He then turned to his parents floating in the force field.

"There's something I have to tell you," Danny called to them, "Or rather, _show_ you."

"Danny, no!" yelled Jenny and Ninjetta.

Danny phased out of ghost form just as Sam, Tucker, Tommy, and Jazz ran up to the room. Suddenly they ducked behind the doorframe to keep out of sight.

"Oh my gosh!" Jack yelled, "That ghost has metamorphosis powers! He changed into our son!"

"You idiot! That is your son!" snapped Queen Vexus.  
"Are you sure he doesn't have metamorphosis powers?" asked Jack.

Maddie just stared at Danny in shock.

"I'm afraid not, Jack." She said sadly, "That IS Danny."

Suddenly the floor shook violently as the Ninja Ghost and Skullker phased up through it carrying the Fenton Portal.

"Yes, we got it!" boomed the bounty hunter ghost. He sees Danny and smirks. "Well, we meet again, Ghost Child."

The Ninja Ghost turned to see Ninjetta standing next to Danny and Jenny.  
"You!" he boomed furiously. He brandished his sword and charged Ninjetta.

"Watch yourself, girl!" yelled Jenny as she pushed Ninjetta out of the way. She opened up her arm and fired a laser at the Ninja Ghost, but it just went through him. The Ninja Ghost glared at Jenny and tried to slice at her. Jenny jumped out of the way just in the nick of time, but the Ninja Ghost came around and kicked her into the wall.

"Foolish robot, getting in my way!" growled the Ninja Ghost.

He turned to Ninjetta. "Now, you die!"

"I suppose saying I'm sorry wouldn't help some?" Ninjetta asked. The Ninja Ghost charged towards her again, and slashed at her with a loud "HaaaiiiieeeeYaaa!"

Ninjetta dodged the sword and jumped onto the wall

"I thought not." She said.

As Jenny picked herself up off the ground, a horrible thought occurred to her. Normally, during a fight, her mom would be yelling at her, telling her to be careful, but she hadn't heard a thing from her.

Jenny looked around fearfully; she didn't see her mom anywhere in sight.

She stood up and turned to Vexus.

"Where's my mom!" Jenny demanded.

"Oh, right," Vexus grinned, "I'd completely forgot. I held the "dear" doctor in a special place. I won't guaranteed her safely...but I might be able to keep her out of harms way for the time being…if you surrendered as well."

"Never!" snapped Jenny.  
"Your funeral." Vexus said, but then stopped, "Oh, my mistake! It's _Dr. Wakeman's funeral_!"

Vexus launched off into a hysteric laugh as she started to fly off.

"Wait!" Jenny said. Vexus stopped.

"I—I surrender." Jenny said dropping to her knees.

"There's a good girl." Vexus cackled, "Unfortunately, I only make deals like that with humans, so ours is null and void. I shall accept your surrender, however!"

With that, Vexus tossed The Fentons down—on top of Danny.

Suddenly the sky clouded up as a mysterious ghostly figure descended. The Ninja Ghost Threw Ninjetta across the room and stopped as Plasmius came down to the party he was holding the Spiritual gem.

"Plasmius!" Danny said.

"Well done!" Plasmius mocked, "Give the boy a prize!"

"Who are you?" Ninjetta demanded, since she was the only one that hadn't surrendered.

"Really, you're a Kurenai, a female Ninja," Plasmius said, "you're supposed to be smart and quick thinking, and you come out with a stupid question like that?"

"Hardly smart," Vexus said, "She's clearly been defeated, and yet she refuses to surrender."

"As I thought," Plasmius said, "incredibly stupid, as all children are."

"What do you want with us!" Jack demanded.

"Well, I'll deal with you two later," Plasmius said, "But first I have a little surprise for our little 'heroes'! Ready? FREEZE!"

Plasmius held the Gem out and suddenly it shocked Danny, Jenny and Ninjetta. They were all frozen in place, unable to move.

Tommy tried to get up to run to Kimi, but Sam grabbed him.

"Perfect! It worked!" Plasmius said evilly.

"How dare you!" The Ninja Ghost growled, "You stole my revenge!"

The Ninja Ghost charged Plasmius, but Plasmius just shot him down with an ectoplasmic blast.

"What have you done!" Maddie demands.

"I got them out of the way, just in case the decided to rescind on their little agreements of surrender." Plasmius said charging an energy blast in his hand, "Now then, Jack Fenton! The hour has come for me to do to you what I should have done twenty-one years ago!"

"No!" Maddie said, stepping in front of Jack. Plasmius stopped.

"Dear, dear sweet Maddie," he said angrily, "It pains me to see you defend this repugnant tub of lard. It'll pain me even more to have to destroy you along with him!"

With that he readied both of his hands to destroy the Fentons.

Suddenly, a different ectoplasmic blast hit Plasmius hard, knocking him to the ground.

"What?" he seethed, "How can that be? Daniel Fenton is frozen!"

"You have much more to worry about than Daniel Fenton, spook!" Gaz said, as she held what looked like a large laser gun in her hand.

"Gaz!" Jack said, "You found the Fenton Ecto-Disruptor!"

"Yup." Gaz said, taking aim at Plasmius, "And I'm about to disrupt this guy's plans!"

With that, Gaz shot Plasmius once more, causing him to lose control of his ghost powers.

Plasmius phased back into Vlad Masters.

"VLAD MASTERS!" The Fentons said shocked.

"Well, I suppose an explanation is needed, hm?" Vlad said sheepishly.

"No, V-man," Jack said, socking the palm of his hand with his fist, "I read you loud and clear!"

With that, Jack Fenton grabbed Masters and flung him out of the hole in the side of the building. Thinking quickly, Vlad phased back into his ghost form and went intangible before he could impact the ground.

"Anybody else wanna piece of this?" Gaz said, pointing it to the Ninja ghost and Skullker, who were retreating rapidly with the Fenton Portal.

Gaz tried to take careful aim to shoot them out of the sky  
"Actually," Vexus said, charging Gaz "I do!"

Gaz shot the blast at Vexus, but the robot dodged, and smacked the gun out of Gaz's hands.

Vexus lunged for Gaz, but Gaz dove out of the way.

"Fine," Gaz said, "That's the way you wanna play it? I can play just as dirty."  
Suddenly, Gaz removed her coat to reveal an Irken PAK attached to her back as four large metallic spider-legs extended from it.

Vexus attacked again, but Gaz was ready for her.

One spider leg punched Vexus across her face as another swept her legs down. The other two impaled Vexus' legs as Gaz made another spider-leg ram Vexus' face into the floor.

Vexus got up and tried to fire her gun at Gaz, but Gaz used another leg to impale the gun, destroying it.

Vexus grabbed one of the spider legs and yanked it forward, tripping Gaz, but another leg recovered for her, and the other two swatted Vexus against the wall.

Vexus flew up in the air, out of Gaz's reach.

"You little spider-legged cretin!" she said to her, "You may have won this round, but you shall not be so lucky the next time we meet. I shall destroy you! You and XJ-9!"

With that Vexus flew off after Skullker and the Ninja Ghost.

"Coward." Gaz grated simply.

"Gaz!" Maddie said, "What in Heaven's name are those things sticking out of your back?"

"Long story," Gaz said.

"C—can you put them back _into_ your back?" Jack said, "Spiders make me nervous."

Gaz smirked and held the legs above Jack's head, wiggling them.

"Ooooh," she said, "They just saved your butts! Do they still make you nervous?"

Jack shuddered with disgust.

As Gaz retracted her legs, Jazz, Sam, Tucker and Tommy came out of hiding. Tommy ran to Ninjetta while the other three walked up to Danny.

"Dad…" Jazz said, tears welling up in her eyes, "Is Danny….is he dead?"

"I don't know, Jazz," Jack said, holding his boy, "but he feels freezing."

Sam turned and cried into Tucker's shoulder.

Suddenly, Danny, Jenny and Ninjetta woke up. Danny flailed wildly, and Jack dropped him.

"Danny!" everyone yelled. Maddie and Jack hugged their son.

"Wait a minute," Jack said. He held Danny in front of him, "Please tell me you're not a ghost that's metamorphosized into my son!"

"No, Dad," Danny said, "It's me."

Kimi woke up slowly, holding her head.

"Ooooohh," she moaned.

"Kimi you're okay!" Tommy yelled.

"Kimi!" The Fentons said.

"Thanks, Tommy." She said, "Thanks a lot."

"S-sorry, Kimi," Tommy said, "But we—I just didn't know if you were dead or not."

"I suppose it's alright Tommy," Kimi said as she stood up, "What about Jenny?"

Jenny was sitting down on the floor, with a look of shock on her face, except that her eyes had gone dark. She'd shut off.

"Great," Tucker said, "Now we have to figure out how to turn her on!"

"Oh that's easy," Danny said, "I bet it's her belly button."

He pressed her belly button, and Jenny's eyes flickered back to life.

"That tickles," Jenny giggled.

Suddenly Sam growled with jealousy. Everyone looked at her.

"Uh, sorry," Sam said, "I don't know what came over me."

"Now let me get this straight," Maddie said, "Danny, _YOU'RE_ the Phantom?"

"Danny Phantom!" Tucker added.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Jack said.

"Well, I---uh…" Danny stammered.

"Mr. Fenton, I know you and Mrs. Fenton are shocked that your son is half-ghost and didn't tell you until now," Sam said, "but the only reason he didn't tell you is, well, you're both ghost hunters and things might have gotten a bit crazy if you figured out."

"And besides," Tucker added, "You know what they say, 'It takes one to fight one.'"

"I suppose you're right," Maddie said, "But you still could have told us."

"You mean, you're not mad?" Danny said.

"Well, we're not exactly thrilled that our son wants to be a superhero," Maddie said, "But no, we're not mad."

"Well that's all well and good," Jenny said worriedly, "But we still don't know where my mom is!"

"My guess is that robo-hag Vexus still has her," Gaz said, who had been relatively quiet the whole time.

"Gaz?" Ninjetta said, "What are you doing here?"

"My dad knows the Fentons." Gaz explained, "He couldn't come tonight, so I came in his place. Lucky I did too, I was the one that fought all those goons off."

"They got away with the Fenton Ghost Portal!" Jack said.

"And that's only half our problems," Ninjetta said, "That Plasmius guy had a gem that incapacitated Danny, Jenny and I, and we have to find out what it is."

"You think it has something to do with the reason they stole the portal?" Jenny asked.

"Maybe," Ninjetta said, "Whatever the case, we've got trouble."

Elsewhere, Stan Matthews sat in his office, still with Joxer and Assassina. Stan puffed on his cigar and blew out some smoke.

"Can your friend please show her face son?" he said, I'd like to know who I'm working with here."

Assassina just glared and her mask moved off revealing Savannah's face.

Just then Vlad appeared in a cloud of smoke. The elder Matthews smiled. "I assume it was a success?"

Vlad bowed. "You assume correctly. The machine is all set upstairs. Anytime you are ready, we will commence with our operation." With that, he disappeared again, an the same swirl of smoke.  
"Excellent." Stan smiled.

A few minutes later, Assassina, Joxer the Clown, and Stan Matthews in his full Shadow Man suit, entered the large black room where the Portal was operating.

A small army of robots were standing in front of the Portal, most of them resembled a number of Danny's ghost enemies.

"I trust you've briefed the ghosts on their mission?" Matthews asked. Vlad nodded. "Good." He said, "Activate the portal."

Vexus smiled as she plugged herself into the portal and ordered it to open.

Suddenly, a multitude of ghosts poured out of the portal and took to their fighting machines.

The Shadow Man walked down the line of robots as any General would with his army.

"Now as you already know," he said, "these robot suits were designed to allow you to use your ghost powers BUT keep you immune to being trapped again so long as you are in them. Now, in order to keep them, you will do what I say is that clear?"  
All of the ghosts nodded.

"Excellent." The Shadow Man said, "Now go wreak your havoc, but remember, you had better come back with those gems! Move out!"

The Shadow Man watched as his troupe made out for Los Angeles.

"Soon, I will have the remaining Spiritual Gems, and the World will be mine!" he said before launching into a maniacal cackle.


	2. Chapter 1 Heroes Unite

Odd Trio Episode 1

Chapter 1 - Heroes Unite

Los Angeles Historical Museum

Kira Finster and her stepson Chuckie were browsing around the museum. Chuckie had been doing a school report for history class on feudal Japan. He'd first wanted to ask Kimi, but for some reason she'd never been around anymore. Kira was only happy to help along with whatever she'd learned about her home country's history in school herself. Later on, Kira decided to give Chuckie a more hands-on experience by taking him to the museum to check out the Japanese culture section.

"Wow," Chuckie remarked as he came upon a Samurai suit of armor, "This is actually pretty cool. The placard says it was worn by a Shogun in the royal army in the early 1800's."

"Right," Kira smiled, "So based on what you know; was that before or after the Meiji Restoration?"

"Before, right?"

"Very good, Chuckie-chan." Kira said, "You'll have no problem passing this report."

"You know it, Mom." Chuckie said, "Maybe pretty soon, I'll learn more than Kimi!"

Kira smiled again, "Perhaps you will, **sweetheart**," she said, "perhaps you will."

"Wow! Look at this! I never knew the Japanese made THIS!" Chuckie said excitedly as he ran off to a display holding a large gem.

Kira walked up to it.

"Odd," she remarked as she read the placard, "they didn't make it, it says it was found outside of Kyoto in 1917."

"Weird." Chuckie said, "It says that the guy who found it claimed he had horrible nightmares every night after it, and that he blamed this stone. They'd found him in his bungalow, three months later, after…he killed himself…eew."

"That's silly," Kira smiled, "How could a gem give you nightmares?"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Kira and Chuckie gasped as the vibrations caused the gem to fall off its display in the case.

"Earthquake!" Kira said, "Chuckie, get under the doorframe!"

Kira and Chuckie ran to the large doorway, but suddenly, the ground cracked open and out came the Ninja Ghost, Skullker and the Fright Knight, suited up in mechanical combat gear.

"Oh God!" Chuckie screamed as he and Kira clutched each other. Everyone else ran off screaming, but Kira and Chuckie were too scared to move.

"How can a gem give you nightmares, dear lady?" the Fright Knight thundered, "Allow us to demonstrate!"

Skullker aimed his weapon at the case holding the gem and blasted it open, while the Ninja Ghost bounded over to it and grabbed it.

"Finally," The Ninja Ghost said, "We now possess the second Spiritual Gem. When focused correctly, it possesses the power to make a person dream their greatest fear, and you my dear lady will be the first test subject!"

"Enough!" a voice boomed as Plasmius appeared into the room.

"We have bigger and better malefactors to use this against!" he yelled, "Do not waste it on such a worthless target."

"Hey!" Chuckie said.

"SILENCE, BOY!" Plasmius yelled, a crackle of lighting filling the room. He then turned to the Ninja Ghost.

"Give me the Gem. As for those two…" He said before turning around and smiling evilly at them, "Do with them what you see fit."

With an evil cackle, Plasmius disappeared in a cloud of smoke as the mechanized creatures advanced on the defenseless Kira and Chuckie.

Kimi: Ninja power!

Jenny: Teenage Robot!

Danny: Going Ghost! 3...

Jenny: ...2...

Kimi: ...1

Together: Odd Trio!

When we are together, we are the Odd Trio!

Three young superhero powered teens,

Working together as a fighting team,

They and their friends are doing things their way,

Helping out the world to save the day.

They stick together like birds of a feather,

Champions alone but unstoppable together

Ninjetta, Danny Phantom, XJ-9,

Their here to save the world from crime!

They'll never stop until their work is done,

They may be three but they work as one,

They do coolest things as a team,

Hard to believe that they're still in their teens,

Their powers my not be fully developed, But they'll save the day for you and me! Odd Trio!

Back at the Fenton household, Jack and Maddie sat their guests down as Danny, Kimi and Jenny paced across the floor worriedly.

"This is just great." Danny said, flabbergasted. "Now that the Fenton Portal is in the wrong hands, there's no telling what they could do with it!"

"Well the only logical explanation seems to be that they're going to release all the ghosts onto humanity." Maddie said.

"Right," Jack said, "And we've got to be ready for each and every evil one!"

"Uh, Dad," Danny said, "Not all ghosts are evil. I mean, look at me!"

"Right," Jack said, "Sorry son."

Danny sighed harshly.

"It's bad enough I have to take those guys on, on a daily basis," Danny said, "But if Vlad and that Vexus chick release them…"

Danny banged his fist on the counter.

"I'll never be able to take all of them on alone!" Danny said.

Kimi and Jenny stopped.

"Danny," Kimi said, "You're not alone."  
"Yeah," Jenny said, "We're all in this together. I mean Vexus has my mom! We have to save her!"

"And That Ninja Ghost seems to have some sort of personal vendetta against me." Ninjetta said, "And regardless of that, I'm can't just stand idly by and let these fiends get away with this. You guys are my friends, and as long as you two are fighting, I'm fighting too."

"Right." Sam said. "Despite whatever conflicts or differences you may have had before, when you three worked together as a team, your enemies fell easier than if you'd worked alone. Not only that, all your enemies have seemed to band together."

"She has a point." Ninjetta said, "Our foes _have_ teamed up. We'd never be able to take them on by ourselves, but if we work together, we can do anything!"  
Jenny smiled, "So are we a team, or what?" She said excitedly.

"I'm in!" Kimi said, sticking her hand out. Jenny placed her hand on top of Ninjetta's.

Danny smiled back at them

"We got ourselves a team!" Danny said and he placed his hand in the circle too.

Gaz started laughing silently, pinching her eyes.

"What?" Kimi asked, "What's so funny?"

"Well, this is heartwarming and all," Gaz chuckled, "really it is. But I mean come on. Not only was that the corniest, most clichéd start of a group I've ever seen, you're a Robot Girl, a Ghost boy, and a Ninja? And you all can't be older than what, 14?"

"Uh…" Jenny said, "Actually, I'm supposed to be 15. Almost sixteen."

"Yeah," Danny said, "I'm fifteen too."

"Whatever," Gaz said, annoyed by the interruption and corrections, "My point is you guys are three teenage freaks of nature. You're the oddest trio I've even seen."

"Well aren't you just a bright ray of sunshine?" Danny said, unknowingly repeating his father.

"Hey!" Ninjetta said, "The Odd Trio…I like the sound of that!"

"Yeah," Jenny said, "it's sort of got that Neil Simon feel to it."

"Oh please," Gaz said, rolling her eyes.

"Odd Trio? I've heard better names." Jazz said, rolling her eyes. Suddenly The Odd Trio frowned at her. Jazz smiled nervously.

"But hey, if that's what you want to call yourselves," Jazz said, "who am I to argue?"

"Now that all that's settled," said Danny, "We have to find Skullker, Vlad and that Ninja Ghost so that we can get that Portal back."

"And we have to save my Mom!" Jenny said.

"But even the best of heroes need powerful weapons from time to time," Gaz said, pulling out the Fenton Ecto-Disruptor.

"Sorry, Mr. Fenton," Gaz said, "I sorta pocketed this one. Hope you don't mind."

Jack raised an eyebrow at her.

"Of all the people to invite to dinner," he said, "we had to get a guest with sticky fingers."

"I'd have brought it back" Gaz said, "…eventually…"

"Jack honey," Maddie said, "We have a few more important things to worry about than your little ecto-disruptor. Dr. Wakeman is being held captive by a robot, our house has a big hole in the side of it, and…our son…is the Phantom!"

"Our son is the Phantom?!" Jack said, "When did this happen?"

"I already told you!" Danny said, "Now can we get back on track, please!"

"Of course, Danny my boy!" Jack said, "Since there are so many ghosts involved, this gives me the perfect chance to field test the invention I've been working on. It's called the Fenton Ultrasonic Exorcist! Using high-pitched waves of sound, it can blast the ghost clean out of any possessed human being! Or…robot in Jenny's case."

"Uh…Mr. Fenton, I don't think that these ghosts can possess a robot." Jenny said.

"Only one way to find out," Danny grinned as he suddenly disappeared.

"Hey!" Jack said, "Danny! Where'd you go?"

"I don't know," Jenny said, "but he'd better not…"

Suddenly Jenny's eyes turned a bright glowing green.

"Wow," Danny said, speaking out of Jenny's voice module, "It's cool in here, there's a bunch of circuits and wires and junk!"

"Stop that!" Jenny said, "Get out of me this…"

"Wow, Jenny," Danny said, "You've got quite a playlist in your brain, can I download some of these songs off of you…wait…except…is that Chip Skylark!?"

"EEEWWW!" Sam and Gaz said, shrinking back in unison.

Jenny gasped.

"Heh, heh…you weren't supposed to see that," She said blushing bright blue again.

"Come on Danny," Kimi said, "That's enough, stop possessing Jenny."

"Okay, fine!" Danny said as he seeped out of the robot.

Suddenly, Tommy's cellphone rang.

"Hello?" he said, picking up. His head jerked back and his eyes widened as he listened to the frantic person on the other line.

Suddenly, Kimi felt her Ninja Sense shoot up her spine. Something was wrong; something's happened. Whoever the caller was had bad news.

Tommy looked over to Kimi.

"It's for you," he said worriedly, "It's Lil. She's hysterical!"

Kimi quickly took the phone.

"Lil?" she said, "What's wrong?"

Tommy, Danny, Jenny and everyone else looked on worriedly as Kimi repeatedly told Lil to calm down and tell her what was wrong.

"It's your mother and Chuckie!" Lil said, "Something's happened to them! They were at the museum and it got attacked or something and they're in the hospital now!"

"Oh my GOD!" Kimi said, suddenly turning just as frantic as Lil, "Are they okay? Are they hurt?"

"I don't know Kimi!" Lil cried, "I don't know!"

"Okay," Kimi said, "get to the hospital, I'll be there as soon as I can!"

"Hospital?!" Tommy said as Kimi hung up and tossed the phone back to him, "Kimi what's the matter?!"

Kimi's face was pulled back in absolute horror.

"Something's happened" Kimi said, getting a waver in her voice, "I have to go."

Without another word, she tied her mask back on and ran out the door, launching a web from her wrist.

"Come on!" Tommy said, "We'd better follow her!"

With that, Tommy, Sam, and Tucker took off after her. Danny and Jenny started, too, but Jack stopped them.

"Just a moment, you two." He said, "There could be trouble. You never know what kind of ghosts are hanging around in hospitals just waiting to strike!"

"Dad, c'mon!" Danny said.

Jack turned to his son.

"You're going to need this." He said, "Trust me."

"WHAT?!" Vlad Plasmius boomed as the Fright Night, Skullker, and The Ninja Ghost stood before him.

The three ghosts began to flinch, and Skullker shoved the Ninja Ghost forward.

"Milord," The Ninja Ghost said, Bowing to his knee, "We tried to do your bidding to dispatch the witnesses, but there…there was…uh…."  
The Ninja Ghost trailed off.

"What Possible excuse could you have for not destroying the witnesses?" Vlad screamed at him.

"Milord…" The Ninja Ghost bowed again.

"And Stop calling me that!" Plasmius roared, "It's getting annoying."

"Eh…Eh…Sempai-dono…?"

Plasmius rolled his glowing red eyes,

"Will you just come out with it," He snarled, "And tell me what happened?"

"There was…a… a little girl, Sempai-dono! No more than 13 years, sir. She tried to stand in between our victims and us and suddenly...there as a bright flash and….she…she struck us all with tremendous speed, Sempai-dono. All at once."

Plasmius didn't say a word. He stared straight ahead, a look of shock on his face.

This expression stayed on his face for quite a while as The Ninja Ghost looked upon him curiously.

Suddenly, a wide, evil grin slowly spread across Vlad's face as he began to lightly cackle.

"She's back." He grated simply.

Ninjetta landed harshly on the roof of the hospital. In her rush, she almost fell as she frantically tried to scramble for the nearest parapet to change behind. Suddenly she noticed a small metal door on the roof. She was relieved when it opened as she lifted it. She checked inside the small crawlspace in the roof to make sure no one was there and climbed in.

On top of another building, a dark figure slithered into view.

"Yes, Ninjetta," Assassina hissed, "Walk right into death's arms."

Kimi quickly pulled her street clothes out of her backpack, put them on over her costume and removed her mask, ribbons and armor before sneaking out into the building.

She ran up to the nearest nurse's desk, frantic.

"Nurse!" she said, "can you please tell me where Kira and Chuckie Finster are?"

The nurse was rather surprised.

"Sweetheart, this the top floor!" she said, "What are you doing wandering around up here?"

"Nevermind that!" Kimi said, starting to yell, "Just PLEASE tell me where Kira Finster and Charles Finster, Jr. are!"

After a quick tap on the computer, the nurse returned her answer.  
"Kira is in room 338, and Charles…he seems to have been discharged already."

"Chuckie's been discharged?" Kimi asked quizzically.

"That's what the computer says." The nurse said.

"Thanks." Kimi said as she raced to the stairwell.

"Wait!" the nurse said. Kimi stopped with a screech of her shoes.

"Aren't you going to take the elevator?" the nurse asked Kimi.

"No time!" Kimi said, "Stairs are faster!" and she bounded through the doorway to the stairwell.

The nurse smiled and shook her head.

"Kids," she sighed, "They're so much more energetic these days."

Kimi quickly jumped over railings, webbing across the staircases with amazing speed, reaching the third floor in practically no time at all.

Swinging the door open to the hallway, she charged down the hall to room 338.

As she ran in, Chuckie was sitting at his step-mom's bedside. He had his arm in a cast and sling, and there was a patch over his eye. Kimi ran up and hugged him, painfully jarring his arm.

"YEEEAAAAOW!" he screamed, "Kimi, watch the arm!"

"Oh, God, oh God, I'm sorry," Kimi said, still hysterical. She looked over at her mom. Kira looked a little worse for wear herself. She had a bandage wrapped around her head, and her arm was also in a cast, propped up in traction.

Kimi started to feel the tears coming in her eyes.

"She's just sleeping right now, Kimi," Chuckie said, "she was in surgery for an hour."

Suddenly, a wave of anger and frustration washed over her. She slammed her fists on the table, cracking it. Chuckie jumped.

"Holy Jeez!" Chuckie exclaimed.

"What happened?" she snapped, turning back around at Chuckie, "Who did this? Tell me who did this!!"

"I don't know!" Chuckie said, "They came up out of the ground!"  
"Out of the ground?" Kimi said, incredulously.

"Yeah!" Chuckie said, "the ground cracked open and these big guys in glowing metal suits came out and mugged us! I tried to help fight them off Kimi! I really did, I swear, but they were too big and I was scared to death!"

Kimi remembered how Skullker and the Ninja Ghost came up out of the floor at the Fentons' house. She would have bet anything that they and their accomplices may have something to do with this.

Kimi backed off a little, "It's okay, Chuckie. It's not your fault. I know you were scared, I probably would have been scared too."

"No kidding!" Chuckie said, "I bet even Tommy would have been scared!"

"But how did you escape them?"

"I don't know, Kimi!" Chuckie said, "I got knocked out, and so did Mom! Paramedics woke us both up. The guys who jumped us were nowhere to be found!"

Suddenly, Tommy, Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jenny came in.

"Kimi what's going on!?" Tommy said as they saw Chuckie and Kira.

"Chuckie, Are you alright?" he asked, "What happened?"

"We got mobbed by these BIG glowing guys that came up out of the ground!" Chuckie said.

"Glowing? Out of the ground?" Tommy said, taken back in alarm.

"Ghosts." Danny said to himself scrunching his eyebrows.

"Wow." Jenny said, looking over Kira and Chuckie, "Looks like you guys were lucky to make it out alive."  
It wasn't until Jenny spoke that Chuckie realized that there was a 6-foot-tall blue and chrome robot standing in the room.

"HOLY JEEZ!" He said, backing up. He tripped over and broke the table that Kimi had cracked earlier, "She's a…she's a…she's…a…A ROBOT!"

Kimi grabbed him again and pulled him to his feet. "Chuckie! Calm down!" she said, "Her names Jenny and she's a friend. This guy is Danny and all his friends."

"Well it's great that we're all friends here," Chuckie said, still surprised by Jenny, "But she's…she's."

Jenny nodded and smiled dryly at Chuckie, "I'm a robot! We've established that!"

At the main admissions desk of the hospital, a familiar girl walked in. She was wearing very chic black leather clothing with deep, dark shades and black knee-high leather go-go boots. Her hair had been pulled back into three ponytails, and she wore what looked to be a rather cocky smile on her otherwise pretty face. Any male within sight of her dropped what they were doing and watched intently as the girl passed by.

The nurse behind the desk looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Uhm…can I help you?" he said.

"Yeah," She said, leaning on the desk with her right elbow and she lowered her shades and looked over them, "I'm looking for a Chuckie Finster."

"Are you a relation?"

"I'm a friend of his sister's, you could say." She said, suddenly turning pouty, "I just came to check up on poor little old Chuck to see if he was okay."

"Right," The Nurse said, "Well, Charles Finster was discharged today."

Savannah leaned back and crossed her arms.

"Come again?" she said, getting a bit of an attitude.

"He was discharged this afternoon." The Nurse explained, "All he had was a broken arm and a sprained wrist. His mother however was also injured, and she suffered more serious injuries. He'll be in the room with her, in room 338."

"Thanks, Tiger." She said as she winked at him and walked off towards the elevator.

Back in the room Kimi sighed.

"Well did you tell the police what happened?" she asked.

"Yeah, I did," Chuckie said, then stopped.

"Do you think it was Ninjetta?" he said before turning to Kimi.

"Huh?" Kimi said.

"I bet it was Ninjetta," Chuckie said excitedly, "I bet she's the one that saved us!"

Suddenly, a wave of remorse washed over Kimi. She knew she should have been the one to save them, but she didn't. She let her Mother and Brother get attacked and possibly killed.

It almost happened again. She almost lost the rest of her family because she was careless.

She left her city unguarded and someone she knew got hurt. Maybe someone did chase the ghosts away, but it wasn't Ninjetta. She knew that.

But it should have been.

"I---I don't think it was, Chuckie," Kimi said sadly.

"Oh come on!" Chuckie said, "Who else could it have been?"

"I don't know," Kimi said turning away to hide the tears welling up in her eyes.

She started for the door, but suddenly stopped.

"Well excuse me." Savannah said with a smirk, "just where do you think you're going?"

"Savannah!" Kimi exclaimed, half in surprise, half in anger.

"Hey Savannah," Chuckie said confused, "Uh…what are you doing here?"

"Well," Savannah said, "Your sister and I have to have a talk."

Suddenly, faster than anybody could notice, a black tendril shot forth from Savannah's sleeve, socking Chuckie in the face, knocking him out.

"And it unfortunately doesn't involve you, nerd!"

Danny, Jenny and the rest jumped back in surprise. Suddenly, even more tendrils came out grabbing Danny, Sam, Tucker, Jenny, Kimi and Tommy.

"Sorry kiddos," Savannah grated evilly, holding them up against the ceiling, "but I'm afraid that you're unwanted baggage as well!"

With that, Savannah flung them through the large window. As they started to plummet towards the lower roof of the hospital, Danny grabbed Tucker and Sam and went intangible. Kimi grabbed Tommy and Jenny grabbed them, setting the two of them down on the roof.

"Jenny!" Kimi yelled, "Get Tommy out of here! She's going to…"

"Look out!" Jenny yelled.

Before she had time to react, a flying Assassina dropkicked Kimi. The impact walloped Kimi so hard that she flipped head over heels twice before painfully landing on the roof.

"Kimi!" Tommy and Jenny yelled.

"Get out of here!" Kimi bellowed.

Assassina grabbed one of Kimi's ponytails and yanked her up, grabbing her by the neck with the other hand.

"Come on, girl," Assassina said, "Where's your fighting spirit? Are you not going to try to defend yourself? Oh sorry, you're not in that stupid white costume."

Assassina's arm extended higher as she picked Kimi up and choke slammed her to the ground.

"It's cool though," Assassina continued, "I look MUCH better on Savannah. She is prettier than you after all."

"Yeah," Kimi grated, "I get that a lot."

Assassina lunged for Kimi again, but Kimi jumped up onto the wall and sprung off of it landing behind her. Quickly, Assassina formed her hand into a giant flyswatter shape and smacked Kimi to the ground.

"Pathetic." Assassina said, "Just pathetic. You're not even putting up a fight! You have got to get over this costume hang-up. Here sweetheart, I'll do you a favor."

Assassina's arm extended again as she grabbed Kimi and flung her up onto the hospital's higher roof. She jumped up onto the side of the building and ran straight up the side.

As she jumped on top of the roof, she formed her arm into a katana.

"Heeeeeeeeeere Ninjy, Ninjy, Ninjy!" she hissed cruelly, "Come out come out where ever you are. I won't hurt ya—much!"

Suddenly, from behind a heater register, a white blur came across and clobbered Assassina hard in the jaw. She reeled back as Ninjetta came back with a right-cross, and whipped around with a spinning dropkick. Assassina staggered to her knees but held her ground as she glared Ninjetta down. Ninjetta drew her sword.

"THAT was for calling me Ninjy," she said, "you happy now, Sassy?"

"Oh you have no idea!" Assassina said dryly as she formed her arm back into a sword and charged Ninjetta.

Ninjetta swung around and blocked Assassina's blade merely inches away from her head. A harsh clang resounded as the blades clashed and bounced off of each other as Assassina went for Kimi's left side. The blades diced furiously as Assassina slashed towards Ninjetta's right, and then back to her left. Ninjetta thrusted towards Assassina's chest, but Assassina blocked that and went for Ninjetta's head again. Sparks spit off of the blades as they clashed over Ninjetta's head, but she stood her ground and bit back at Assassina's blade with furor, pushing her back. Assassina recovered and tried to go for an opening for Ninjetta's side, but the White Kurenai swung her blade low and beat off Assassina's blade once again. The two spun around and clashed again, as Assassina blocked Ninjetta's thrust to the throat. Ninjetta reeled back, but lunged again, as the blades clashed once more. Ninjetta swiped again, but slung Assassina's blade tip to the ground. Taking advantage of the momentary opening, Ninjetta spun around again and swiped at Assassina's side, but the villainess swung low, blocking Ninjetta's shot. Ninjetta lunged for Assassina's head, but Assassina clashed back, locking the two blades. They muscled off of each other, the both of them reeling back.

"Bad form Ninjetta," Assassina said as she shook her head, "That strike was out of anger."

"This whole fight is out of anger, stupid." Ninjetta cut back, "You were behind those ghosts attacking my Mother and Brother at the museum, weren't you? You and Vexus and that Plasmius guy are in this together!"

"No kidding, Sherlock," Assassina mocked scathingly, "But you only have things half right."

Ninjetta stopped.

"What do you mean?"

"I love this," Assassina grinned devilishly, spinning her blade and pointing it at Ninjetta, "You really don't know just how much trouble you're in, do you?"

"Not as much as you're going to be in!" Ninjetta said, readying her sword and stancing herself.

Assassina lunged for her again, but Ninjetta jumped out of the way and swung back at Assassina's head, Assassina spun her blade up and met Ninjetta's with a harsh clash, once again serving up a small fireworks display as the blades bounced off of each other. As Ninjetta reeled back, Assassina swiped again. As Ninjetta tried to block, her stance was off kilter, and Assassina knocked Ninjetta's blade aside and spun around, swiping at Ninjetta again. Ninjetta ducked underneath Assassina's blade but the evil Ninja swiped her blade down low. Ninjetta popped up quickly jumping over the deadly swath of Assassina's blade, but Assassina swung upward. As Ninjetta blocked, she used the momentum from Assassina's blade and swung it up close to her face.

Assassina forced the two back into a blade lock before muscling Ninjetta back. As Ninjetta reeled back, Assassina swung her bade around again for Ninjetta's head. As Ninjetta deflected it, Assassina came back and slashed her blade for Ninjetta's throat, and then for her head once again. Ninjetta blocked, and grit the two blades into a lock again. Before Assassina could react, Ninjetta booted Assassina in the gut and cut her a hard right across her chin. Assassina stumbled backwards.

"You little tramp!" Assassina growled, "That was a dirty move!"

"Turnaround is fair play," Ninjetta smiled.

"Fair enough," Assassina said, lunging for Ninjetta again.

As Ninjetta blocked the strike to her head, she didn't see Assassina's other hand swell into an oversized spiked gauntlet.

Assassina rammed Ninjetta to the ground. Suddenly she formed her other hand into another spiked gauntlet and pounded Ninjetta again, Ninjetta swung around and kicked Assassina in the face. Assassina flew back and landed hard on the rooftop.

"It's over Assassina." Kimi said, drawing her sword again, "So why don't you just run back to the bed you crawled out from under and get the heck out of my town?"

"Now why would I wanna do that?" Assassina growled, "You're so much fun to play with, Kimi. Speaking of which, I got a new toy."

Assassina produced the second gem in the palm of her hand and aimed it at Ninjetta.

"The Gem!" Ninjetta gasped.

"No," Assassina corrected, "Not _THE_ gem, _A_ gem. Say cheese, Ninjadork!"

Ninjetta howled in pain as the ray from the gem pierced into her heart. An aura of pain surrounded her and seemed to constrict her as she dropped to her knees in agony.

When Ninjetta looked up from the ground, she didn't seem to see anything. She was still in pain, but she was staring into a deep void, when slowly image of Tommy faded into view.

"Tommy!" Kimi called to him, "Tommy help me!"

Tommy started to run for her, but as he did so he tripped hard. Suddenly, he was flipped over as what looked like large tendrils came out and grabbed Tommy's legs. Tommy gasped and tried to wrestle free, but more came out grabbing Tommy by his arms, and shoulders. Tommy tried to wrestle free, but it was no use, whatever grabbed him started to envelop him. Kimi struggled to her feet and tried to run after Tommy as it started to drag him away. Tommy, held out his hand for Ninjetta to pull him to safety, but as fast as she ran, she just wasn't close enough to reach Tommy's hand. Tommy started to scream as the murky cocoon around him suddenly wrapped harder around him. More tendrils reached up and grabbed the top of Tommy's head and started to envelop him further, but suddenly, he was sucked hard down into the ground. Kimi tried to reach for his hand, but she kept missing her grip on it. In a split second, he was gone.

"Tommy!" Kimi yelled, "Tommy! NO!"

Kimi looked up and saw all her friends and loved ones getting enveloped by the same greedy blobs: Lil, Phil, Susie, Angelica, Dil…they were all crying out, screaming for help.

Kira was beginning to be swallowed by one as Chuckie tried to fend it off. Suddenly it completely enveloped Kira and grabbed Chuckie.

Kimi dashed over to them as fast as she could and grabbed Chuckie's hand before it was too late.

"Chuckie!"

"I've got Mom! Kimi! Help! Pull us to safety!"

Kimi started to pull.

"Hurry Kimi! I can't hold on much longer!"  
"I'm trying Chuckie! Stay with me!"

"Kimi!"

"I'm not going to let you go!"

"Kimi!"

Suddenly Chuckie's hand was ripped away from Kimi's by a tendril. It started to wrap around her arms and legs as she watched in horror as Chuckie was completely swallowed.

"CHUCKIE!!" she screamed, tears pouring from her eyes, "MAMA!!! NO! NOOO!!!!!!"

"Yes," Assassina cackled, "Feel the power of the gem, unearthing your worst fear! Witness the most hellish nightmare you've ever had! Feel your sadness torture you until you beg for Sweet Death to come and take you!"

Assassina relinquished the focus of the Gems power off of Kimi, and she fell to the rooftop, a blank and horrified look on her face. Assassina picked Ninjetta back up and formed her arm back into a katana. She held the blade to Ninjetta's throat.

"Hm-hm…but why let Death have all the fun," Assassina chuckled wickedly, "When I'll get more pleasure out of doing it myself! Sayonara, Ninjetta!"

"I beg to differ!"

Assassina turned to see Danny and Jenny standing in front of her. In Danny's arms was a large black gun, aimed straight at Assassina. Danny pulled back a slider on the bottom, and a faint, high-pitched tweet sounded as the gun charged. Assassina's eyelid quivered as the small sound annoyed her.

"What the..?" Assassina glared.

"Say cheese, Ninjadork!" Danny smirked as he pulled back on the trigger.

Suddenly, a loud sonic screech blasted from the Fenton Sonic Exorcist. The force of the recoil threw Danny back into Jenny.

As the sonic wave hit her, Assassina screamed in pain and dropped to her knees. Her suit began to jerk back and forth on her, squirming and writhing in pain. She threw the unconscious Ninjetta down to the rooftop as she tried to cover her ears.

"Whoa!" Jenny yelled over the screech of the gun, "What's the deal with her suit?"

"I donno!" Danny yelled back, "The sound is making it spazz out!"

As Assassina wailed in agony, she searched around frantically for something—anything—that she could throw at the gun that Danny was holding. She grabbed Ninjetta again and tossed her at them with all the strength she could muster. Danny, Jenny and Ninjetta crashed hard to the rooftop as Assassina regained her bearings.

The clouds that had gathered during the heat of battle were now raining down on the Odd trio as two of them struggled to their feet. Danny looked around. Assassina had vanished.

"Where'd she go?" Danny said as he searched around for Assassina.

"Never mind that!" Jenny said picking up Ninjetta, "Something's wrong with Kimi!"

They looked at the still-unconscious Ninjetta. Her eyes were still wide open, staring blankly ahead, her eyebrows scrunched up into a horrified expression. Her irises had a vacuous look to them as Kimi stared straight into a pitch-black void.

Kimi tired to search around, but the monster had swallowed her too. The screams of pain fear, and anguish were now hauntingly silent as Kimi looked around. She tried to move, but she couldn't, as if she were completely paralyzed. She thought to herself that this had to be a dream, but she couldn't stir to wake herself up from it. The darkness was overpowering, as it seemed to move in on her and encompass her. She was alone. Everyone that she'd seen, she couldn't save them. They were gone. She'd lost everything that ever mattered to her. Kimi tried to look around, but all she saw was black. She didn't even see herself. She couldn't even feel herself.

Suddenly she felt a harsh motion, as if she were falling. The velocity ripped through her as her entity started to panic. She seemed to feel like she was falling faster and faster until…

Suddenly, Kimi's eyes opened to the real world as a large bolt of lighting split across the sky.

Kimi jumped back in screaming horror and grabbed a sai out of her boot, pointing the tip of the blade at herself.

Jenny gasped and tackled Ninjetta before she had a chance to stab herself. Kimi screamed in panic and started to thrash wildly.

"Kimi!" Jenny yelled as she tried to restrain the girl.

"Please forgive me!" Jenny said as she smacked Ninjetta across the face.

Kimi stopped and stared straight forward, still in shock. Suddenly, she collapsed in an unconscious heap.

"Oh God!" Jenny cried in horror, "I knocked her out!"

"I think that was overdoing it just a bit, Jen." Danny said.

Elsewhere...  
Lightning crackled across the sky with a boom of thunder as Stan Matthews stood at his window, slowly puffing on a cigar.

Joxer sat in front of his father's desk bored as he played with a spiked yo-yo.

"You know Daddio," Joxer sighed, "Things just ain't fun when Assassina's not around, and here you are standing at a friggin' window like a gargoyle. You're boooring, old man."

Alan turned to Joxer with his eyebrows raised.

"It's what all evil geniuses do, my boy." Alan smiled as the smoke fumed from his mouth, "Just be patient, son. Our lovely assistant..."

"…Assassin…"

"Whatever. She'll be back soon enough," Stan said, "and then you'll get to have your fun."

"You're still a boring old coot." Joxer smarted off.

Stan was beginning to lose his patience.

"Well what do you expect me to do son?" Stan said as he turned around to face Joxer, "Play 'I Spy' with you?"

Suddenly, another crackle of thunder accompanied a flash of lightning and a fierce draft blew in from the window. Joxer and Stan turned to see a dripping wet Assassina crouching on the windowsill.

"Oh, please continue," she said sarcastically, "I do so _LOVE_ touching father-son moments."

"Wonderful, more sarcasm." Stan said as he puffed on his cigar, "I think too much of Ronald McSchizo here is rubbing off on you."

"Who, me?" Assassina said in a pseudo-innocent tone, "Why Stanny, baby, I've always been like this. I invented sarcasm."

Stan chuckled to himself.

"You know, for a calculating killer, you are quite charming." He said, "I presume things went well, my dear?"

"Yes," Assassina said, "The Gem works like a charm. It had Ninjetta screaming like a little baby when I left her."

"Wait, wait," Joxer said, "You had Ninjetta to her knees with pain, and you didn't _KILL HER_?!"

"Why should I?" Assassina said, "The Gem's power possesses the victim, putting them into a trance where they experience their greatest fears."

Assassina sat down and grinned.

"And there's only one escape," Assassina smiled and snickered.

Joxer began to cackle evilly.

"Baby, you're the best!" he said.  
"Oh I know I am," Assassina said glaring at Joxer, "but if you ever call me 'baby' again," She formed her hand into a large cleaver, "I'll decapitate you."

"The woman puts up a very convincing argument, eh son?" Stan smiled.

Suddenly, there was a rather timid-sounding knock on the door.

"Enter!" Stan said as the intern from earlier slowly peeked his head in. He gasped and flinched harshly when he saw that Joxer and Assassina were still there.

"Uh…uh…uh." He stammered.

"OUT WITH IT, BOY!!" Joxer yelled.

Stan held his hand in front of his son.

"Alan, please," he said.

"Well," Joxer said, "he's just standing there like a dufus, whaddaya want me to do?"

Stan Matthews rolled his eyes.

"Well, Wilson?" he said to his intern, "Is there any news?"

"Yes sir," Wilson answered trepidly, "We've found the location of the third gem. It's In Tremorton, just north of here."

"Excellent," Stan said, as he sat down to his desk, "With this third and final Gem, we shall finally have the power to release the Demon Asteroth from his prison!"

"Asteroth?" Joxer said, "Jeez, I coulda come up with a better name than that."

"Alan!" Stan said, "Now is your chance to have your fun! Go to Tremorton and retrieve the gem. Take a few ghosts along, just incase the rest of our heroes decide to interfere."

"And should anyone get in my way?" Joxer grinned devilishly.

"Well, Alan." Stan Matthews grinned back, clasping his fingers together, "You remember that each one has to focus its power at least once to activate it before freeing Asteroth?"

Joxer chuckled.

"I like how you think, Dad," Joxer cackled as he launched off to the door, "You're not such a boring old coot after all."

Stan sat back and grinned evilly.

"Soon, the last gem will be ours." He said, "Then, Asteroth will be released and all will bow down to me!

The SHADOW MAN!"

Elsewhere...

"Kiiiiimiiiiii……Kiiiiimiiiii…"

A voice wafted through Kimi's head softly as she stirred. Her eyelids were heavy, as if she'd been sleeping. As she gently moved her head, a jolt of pain reverberated through her head.

"Kiiimiii…...waaaake uuuup…."

As she stirred again and began to slowly open her eyes, she moaned softly:

"Oooohh…"

"Kimi?" Tommy said, "Kimi are you okay?"

Wait a minute…Tommy..? Then…

Kimi opened her eyes all the way and saw Tommy, Danny and Jenny's faces hovering over her.

Tommy!

Kimi's heart leapt when she saw him.

"Tommy!" She yelled, as she threw her arms around his neck and held him tight, "Oh Tommy! Tommy! I had such a bad dream! I thought I lost you forever!"

"Kimi…" Tommy gasped, "Kim…I can't breathe…you're choking me…"

Kimi let go of him.

"Oh…oh, sorry…" she said, "So if you're here…then…Chuckie…Mom…?

Kimi looked around, she was back in her room, at her house, in her bed. She was safe again.

"They're back at the hospital." Tommy said, "Chuckie had to be readmitted for a while because Savannah broke his nose."

Kimi winced.

"But other than that, he's okay?" Kimi said. Tommy nodded.

"…what about Mom?"

"You mom's fine Kimi." Jenny said, "That creepy ninja chick didn't even touch her…er…no offense…I mean, you're a _cool_ ninja chick…"

Kimi smiled.

"She did wake up in all the ruckus though." Danny said.

Kimi sat bolt upright in bed.

"She didn't see me change, did she?"

"No," Danny said, "you changed on the roof remember?"

"Oh…" Kimi said, "Right…I guess my short-term memory hasn't come all the way back yet…but everyone…everyone else is okay?"

"Yeah, Kimi, everyone's fine." Tommy said, "What's the matter? What's this bad dream you had, Kimi?"

Kimi lay back down somberly.

"Oh God Tommy, it was horrible…" she said, tears starting to form in her eyes, "It was like you and all my friends and Chuckie and Mom were all getting swallowed by these weird…like…tentacle things!"

"Whoa," Tommy said, "That IS weird."

"And, I…I tried to help. I tried to stop them and save everybody, but I couldn't…and I lost them…I lost everyone who was ever important to me, and there was nothing I could do about it…like…like…like Dad!"

Kimi collapsed back into her pillow, crying. Tommy leaned over and hugged her gently.

"What's she talking about?" Danny asked, "What happened to her dad?"

Tommy sighed.

"I'll tell you guys later." Tommy said, but suddenly, Kimi sat up and interrupted him.

"No…" she sobbed, "It's okay. I'll tell them.

"You see, a couple years ago, back when I'd first gotten my powers, I was just using them for fun. I decided a good way to make a quick buck was to enter a kickboxing tournament. I figured if I were really this strong and agile, I'd have no problem winning. Of course, I couldn't let Mom and Dad know about this, they were a couple of worriers to begin with, and so I always had Dad drop me off the library every day, so that they'd think I was studying. From there I'd walk about a block to the gym where they had these tourneys, and then at the end, I'd run back to the library, where Dad would be waiting for me.

"But one night, it was pouring down cats and dogs, and the my tournament match ran late. Dad was waiting outside for me already under the canopy as I ran up…"

_Chas stood underneath the canopy at the front door of the library as Kimi ran up._

"_Where have you been, sweetheart?" he said, "You realized that the library closed at six today?"_

"_Yeah, I know," Kimi said, "I'm sorry Dad, but I just went to the grocery store down the street to read a magazine until you came to get me, and I lost track of time."_

"_What grocery store?" Chas said, "Kimi, the nearest one isn't for four blocks! And besides that it's raining, and worse, it's night time."_

"_Come on Dad!" Kimi said, "Nobody's going to mug me."_

"_You don't know that, Kimi." Chas said as they started to walk off to the car, "Listen, you're a very young girl, and there are a lot of bad people around at night that may want to hurt you. You know I'd never forgive myself if something bad happened to you!"_

"_Dad, nothing bad is going to happen!"_

"But I was very wrong. Something bad did happen. When we walked back to the car, a man jumped out from behind a large truck. He was holding a gun straight at my dad, demanding money…"

"_C'mon, c'mon, Pops. Just gimme your wallet!" The mugger said. He was shaking violently, but he was determined to get his loot._

"_Wait!" Chas answered, "My wallet has my driver's license in there! I can't drive home without it…Look, I'm just going to pull my wallet out, and hand you my money, see?"_

"_Hey! Hey! Not so fast old man! Easy!"_

"_But you said you wanted my wallet!"_

"_Leave my dad alone!" Kimi said stepping in front of Chas._

"_Hey! Get out of here girlie!" the mugger said, "Shut up and get back behind your old man!"_

"_Look," Kimi said, "My dad doesn't have any money, and he's not gong to hurt you, but I have $100. Here, you can take mine!"_

"_Get your hands out of your pockets, little girl!"_

"_No! Take my wallet!"_

"_Get your hands out of your pockets!"_

"_Please, just take my wallet!"_

_Suddenly, the mugger cocked his gun._

"_NO!" Chas screamed as he jumped in front of Kimi and pushed her out of the way._

"When he shoved me, everything went so slowly…I heard the gun go off, but it seemed like forever before anything actually happened. But…I saw Dad get shot…It hit him right in the chest… and he fell to the ground screaming…I didn't understand what was happening right then…but…he died right there in my arms…"

"_Daddy!" Kimi cried, "Daddy!"_

_Suddenly, the mugger turned tail and ran, leaving the little girl with her father._

"_Daddy, Please get up!" she said, tears streaming down her face, "Daddy please! I want to go home! Daddy, get up! Take us home! Please!"_

_Kimi collapsed in a crying heap on Chas's shirt._

"It was my fault!" Kimi said, crying, "I thought I could handle the situation, but I couldn't. If only I'd just done the right thing and let Dad give him his wallet, he would be alive right now! But no! I thought I was invincible, and I got too headstrong.

That mugger was going to shoot me, but Dad pushed me out of the way. Maybe If I had just kept my mouth shut, none of this would have happened. It's all my fault!"

"Kimi…" Tommy said, "Listen, I told you, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is!"

"Kimi," Danny said, "I know I don't really have a right to tell you how to feel, but you shouldn't beat yourself up like that. All you were doing was trying to protect your dad from getting hurt."

"But I shouldn't have done that." Kimi said, "And even if I did, I should've been the one who got killed. I deserve it."

"No you don't!" Danny said, "Listen Kimi, You didn't know what that guy was going to do."

"That's the whole reason I should have just kept quiet."

Danny sighed.

"Look, I know you regret what you did," Danny said, "but we all have things we regret doing. I regret that I kept lying to my parents about who I was. I should have just told them the truth before all this happened. I know that's not the same thing at all, but still. Your Dad loved you, that's obvious enough by how he saved your life."

"Yeah, that's right," Tommy said, "And I'm sure that if your Dad were here, he'd still be proud of the person you've become. I mean heck Kimi, you're NINJETTA! You're the greatest superhero this town's ever seen!"

"Tommy, I'm the only superhero this town's ever seen." Kimi said.

"Yeah, but you're still a _heroine_." Jenny corrected smiling, "And besides, I'm sure your dad _is_ proud of you, Kimi. You should honor his memory by continuing on and doing what you believe in. You can't dwell on the past like that and beat yourself up, or else it could destroy you in the now and later."

Kimi looked down at the floor. She knew they were right, but at the same time, she knew she was responsible.

"Okay, guys." Tommy said, "I think we've done enough. Let's leave her alone."

Meanwhile in Tremorton…

"Hey Brad look at this! OOOO-OOOO-OOOO-OOOO-OOOO! Look at this!" A smallish eleven-year-old boy said he grabbed onto a shelf and jumped up to see a display at the local museum.

His older brother Brad grabbed his shoulders and settled him down

"Easy Tuck," Brad said. "We don't need you breaking everything in sight. You've had way too much sugar today as it is."

"Aww. I was just looking around," Tuck complained, "I wasn't going to break anything. I was just looking at that shiny jewel-thingy."

Brad smacked his forehead; "Why in the world did I get roped into taking you to the MUSEUM of all places?" He said.

"Because I have a book report due on dinosaurs, that's why," Tuck said, "And since you like driving so much, Mister I-Just-Got-A-Fancy-Car, Dad made you take me here."

"That was a rhetorical question Tuck." Brad said.

"What's rhetorical mean?" Tuck asked.

"It means…"

Suddenly, there was a harsh rumble heard down the hall as a number of museum-goes ran past Brad and Tuck screaming. The boys looked up to see big glowing robots coming towards them. Their large claw-like hands reached out for them.

"It means RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" Brad yelled as he grabbed Tuck and turned around to run. Before Brad could take his first step however, he was met face-to-face with Joxer.

"Boo." He said quickly.

Brad and Tuck jumped back screaming and toppled to the ground at the sight of the white-and-black faced clown.

"Ah-HA!" Joxer cackled, "I just loooove li'l children. They go great with some fava beans and a nice bottle of Chianti! HA!!"

Suddenly, the robots surrounded Brad and Tuck who were lying on the ground. Joxer walked up and stood over them.

"You know," he said, "It just occurred to me…" suddenly he got in their faces and screamed, "YOU TWO ARE IN MY WAY!!"

"Uh…uh…we're sorry…uh…Mister Clown…sir…esquire…"

"And do you KNOW what I DO with people who get…" Joxer's eyelid twitched a bit, "IN MY WAY?!?!"

Brad and Tuck tried to shake their heads as best as they could, but the rest of them was shaking even worse.

"Miss Ember," Joxer said, snapping his fingers, "I wanna rock."

One of the robots' fists smashed through the glass that held the gem and pulled it out.

"ROCK!" Ember said as she handed it to Joxer.

"Thank you sweetheart," Joxer said, "We should get together after the show."

"In your dreams, dipstick!" Ember said.

"Right, well, all unexpected romantic rejections aside…" Joxer said, "Lemme show you EXACTLY what I do to PEOPLE that GET IN MY WAY!" Joxer said as he pointed the gem at the two boys.

Suddenly, two guards came up, pointing their guns at Joxer and the Ghostly Robots.

"FREEZE."

Joxer rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Like THEM!" he said, "THEY'RE getting in my way!"

Joxer pointed the gem at the guards.

"Hey Blue Boys!" he yelled, "Let's ROCK!"

A Large beam shot out at the guards. As it hit them, they started to scream in agony, as there was a tremendous flash of light and energy. When the flash subsided, all that was left of the guards were two large, scorch marks on the wall.

Joxer blew off the smoke that was billowing from the end of the Gem.

"Oh my God!" Brad exclaimed, "Wha—what did you just do?"

"DUH!" Joxer said, "I wiped them off the face of the planet. Would you like a demonstration?"

Joxer stood over Brad and Tuck and pointed the Gem at them.

Brad and Tuck scrunched themselves up, and clung to each other for dear life, crying for mercy.

Suddenly Joxer stopped.

"OH," He said, smacking his forehead, "Silly me. Right, the Teenage Robot is supposed to swoop in and save the day isn't she? Can't disappoint the writers, now can we?"

"So…so you're not going to kill us?" Brad said.

"What? WHAT?!" Joxer laughed, "Of course I am, dear boy!"

Suddenly, his face turned serious. He cracked his knuckles.

"I just have to do this the hard way now."

Suddenly, a long black tendril came out and snatched the Gem from Joxer's hand.

"Enough," Assassina said, "We have what we came for."

"Sassy," Joxer said, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough." Assassina said, "Your father sent me here to make sure you didn't screw up."

"He WHAT?!" Joxer raged, "Why that low-down, no-good, dirty-double-crossing…"

As Joxer continued to swear his father out, Brad and Tuck's eyes were nearly bulging out of their heads. Brad quickly covered Tuck's ears. Tuck returned the favor.

"Sorry, Joxy," Assassina said as her hand "swallowed" the gem, "Don't shoot the messenger. He just thought you were taking too long, that's all."

Joxer screamed in frustration.

"Let's go!" he said with a wave of his hand.

"But…what about these kids?" asked one of the ghosts, "They're witnesses!"

"Ah," Joxer said, "I'm not in the mood to kill 'em now. Just pick 'em up and take them with us. I have to have a talk with my Daddy-Dearest about ruining my fun."

"Sempai-dono": In Japanese, the suffixative honorific –dono shows the highest form of respect and humility; usually reserved for royalty and commanding military officers, and the term "Sempai" is what one would use to address his higher-up, so in reality, "Sempai-dono" is pretty much the exact same as saying "Milord" in English.


	3. Chapter 2 Blood of a Hero

Odd Trio Episode 1

Chapter 2 - The Blood of a Hero

Kimi sat on her bed thinking about What Tommy, Danny, and Jenny said. She knew they were right, but she just couldn't help feeling that she was responsible for her father's death. Not only that, but it nearly happened again. She almost lost Chuckie and her mother as well because she wasn't there to defend her city. She knew she couldn't save everyone, but how could she save anyone if she couldn't even save the rest of her own family?

But why did she become Ninjetta in the first place? Sure, initially she did it to avenge the death of the only father that she'd ever known.

But there was a greater reason.

She didn't want anyone to have to go through the pain that she'd already been through to lose any family member. And isn't that was all people are—someone's family or friends?

Kimi remembered how Danny did what he could to ensure that his parents wouldn't get hurt.

But Jenny, her mother was still being held captive. Vexus probably still had her. Who knows what she could do to her.

And what about everyone else she'd helped? All the lives she'd saved in the past?

They were right. No matter how much she realized that being Ninjetta wouldn't bring her dad back, she still had a responsibility. Being Ninjetta was more to her than just vengeance.

It was a matter of honor, of honoring her father and his memory. It was her duty to make the world as safe a place as she possibly could.

Somewhere out there, enemies of hers, Danny's and Jenny's had banded together to try to destroy what she sought to create—Peace.

Just the mere thought of it…almost set off her Ninja Sense, just the slightest bit.

Something bad was going to happen.

Kimi looked down at herself. She still had her suit on.

And she was still Ninjetta.

"Have you found anything yet?" Danny asked Jenny, who was standing in the middle of the living room, trying to search the Internet through her brain on anything about those gems that could help—and possibly tell what those fiends were up to. Perhaps it would lead her to her mother as well.

"You know, if you keep on interrupting me," Jenny said, "I'm going to lose my place, and then I'll have to start all over again."

"Sorry." Danny said.

Suddenly, Kimi burst abruptly out of her room. The shock made Jenny lose her search place. She and Danny jumped.

"Kimi?" Tommy said, "Are you okay?"

"I've never been better, Tommy," she smiled, "We have to find Dr. Wakeman before it's too late. I have a bad feeling that something bad is going down."

"Like what?" Jenny asked, "I tried scanning the sky for some sort of presence of a spaceship, but I couldn't find any near enough to be in my range, and I tried searching the Internet, but I couldn't find anything about those gems."

Suddenly the door flew open, and there stood Gaz, with a very large, old book. Tucker and Sam were standing behind her.

"Well, Well," Gaz said, "I seem to have found the Freak Patrol."

"ODD TRIO!" they corrected.

"Whatever," Gaz said, "Just making a suggestion, besides, I thought it had a nice ring to it."

"Gaz, what are you doing here?" Kimi asked.

"I seem to have found something terrible about our little project," Gaz said holding up a tattered old encyclopedia.

"But…" Jenny said, "If you found something in that old book, how come I couldn't find anything on the Internet?"

"Because, child," Gaz said, "The Internet may be an abundant resource, but it only has whatever someone has found and thought was worth the effort to put on it. And while books may be ultra low-tech to you, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for, if you just bother to look."

Gaz dropped the book onto the coffee table on its spine. It cracked open and fell open to a page she'd book marked earlier.

"Here we are:" Gaz read, "The Mystic Gems of Asteroth.

"In ancient legend of unknown origins, tales were told of three gems forged by a demon named Asteroth, They were meant to harness the power of three different forces of evil: Fear, Helplessness, and Death. When focused correctly by surrounding ambient light, a beam will shoot forth from the gems. If focused on a victim, each gem will attack said victims' mind or body according to whichever power it signifies. The first forged by Asteroth was Helplessness, made to render a victim unconscious and unable to move. The second was Fear, meant to attack the psyche of its victim by entrancing them into a dream-like state in which the victim lives out his greatest fear…"

"Or HER greatest fear!" Ninjetta said, "That's the one that was used on me!"

"Sorry," Gaz said, "It's this old time literature. I've found it tends to be very sexist…moving on…this is the first part that disturbed me.

"The third and final gem forged by Asteroth was Death. When focused on a victim, it is said to completely disintegrate its physical structure, thereby completely destroying the victim."

Ninjetta stood up.

"We have to find that gem before those villains do."

"Too late." Gaz said.

"What?"

"It's too late. It seems the baddies did their homework. Ironically enough, where as Helplessness was found in Amity Park, and Fear was found in Los Angeles…"

"Death…" Jenny gasped, "...was found in Tremorton!"

"Bingo."

"Oh No!" Jenny said, "And it's been used?!"

"Apparently," Gaz said grimly, "Reports have stated that a bunch of glowing robots, just like the ones here in LA stormed the Tremorton Museum. Witnesses reported seeing a strange bright flash as they fled the scene."

"Oh no!" Jenny said slowly sitting down, "And I...I wasn't there to stop them!"

"Jenny," Kimi said, "It's okay. There was no way of knowing."

"But…but…"

"Jenny," Gaz said, "I'm sorry it had to come down to this, but we still have a job to do, and your mother is still being held captive somewhere."

"Right!" Ninjetta said, "Remember, continue on, doing what you believe in."

A look spread across Jenny's face, half of anger, half of determination.

"You're right." she said, "Let's go."

"Hold on just a sec." Gaz said throwing her hand up in front of them, "Did I say I was finished?"

"There's more?"

"Of course there's more. Duh!" Gaz said, "There's one other part that you guys should hear."

And then she continued reading:

"The Mystic Gems' powers must be activated once, by focusing their energy on a victim. Once such is done, they are then brought together in a sacred ritual in which the Gems will actually call forth the Demon Asteroth, to wreak havoc, destruction and death upon the world."

The Odd Trio gasped.

Kimi: Ninja power!

Jenny: Teenage Robot!

Danny: Going Ghost! 3...

Jenny: ...2...

Kimi: ...1

Together: Odd Trio!

When we are together, we are the Odd Trio!

Three young superhero powered teens,

Working together as a fighting team,

They and their friends are doing things their way,

Helping out the world to save the day.

They stick together like birds of a feather,

Champions alone but unstoppable together

Ninjetta, Danny Phantom, XJ-9,

Their here to save the world from crime!

They'll never stop until their work is done,

They may be three but they work as one,

They do coolest things as a team,

Hard to believe that they're still in their teens,

Their powers my not be fully developed, But they'll save the day for you and me! Odd Trio!

A black car zoomed by on a dirty city street as our three heroes flew and swung directly overhead.

Gaz drove the car, carrying Tommy, Sam and Tucker along as they made their way to the museum in Tremorton. Above them, Ninjetta shot off another string of webbing as Danny Phantom and XJ-9 flew next to her.

Danny looked at Ninjetta.

"So...this girl named Savannah...she's Assassina. How did this happen?" He asked.

Ninjetta sighed as she swung.

"Well...back in junior high, she was one of those popular girls that everybody tried to be like. But she was sort of snotty though.

Anyway, when we got to High School she found out quickly that there were other girls that were more popular than she was. She went straight from being the most popular girl in junior high to being just another regular girl high school. Even when I got into high school, she was a junior, and still wasn't up there with all the popular kids."

"And she didn't like that, did she?" Jenny asked.

"Bingo." Ninjetta said. "Anyway, she noticed how popular I was getting taking pictures of...well...Ninjetta."

"You took pictures of yourself?!" Danny asked.

"Yeah, and I started selling them to the Los Angeles Tribune." Ninjetta continued, "She tried too, and was doing quite well. But then she decided that she wasn't becoming popular enough, fast enough, so she tried to spice it up and made false close ups and even went so far as to have a falsified interview with Ninjetta. I later exposed her and she was disgraced. The Tribune fired her, and she was so embarrassed that she even dropped out of school."

"Eew." Danny said.

"Actually I think that's more of a 'Yikes'," Ninjetta said, "But whatever."

"But what about that outfit of hers?" Jenny asked. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen. It moves on its own…like it's alive."

"It _is_ alive." Ninjetta said.

"What?" Danny and Jenny gasped.

"She's a completely different form of life. She's a being called a Djinn; they sort of come from a parallel dimension. Usually we can't see them, but they can see us. They're just like humans, they live and die and eat and sleep, and there's even good and evil. Usually they leave humans alone, but sometimes the mischievous ones actually possess humans, and even have the power to manipulate their thoughts and emotions."

"Just like a ghost!" Danny said.

"Exactly." Ninjetta answered.

"That explains why the Sonic Exorcist worked on her?" Danny asked.

"No." Ninjetta said, "It worked because she's sensitive to loud noises, and high-pitched sounds and bright light."

"Wait," Jenny said, "How do you know that this…Djinn thing…is a she?"

"Well," Ninjetta said, "I found her, and she possessed me, and our minds sort of merged for a while. But after I found out that she was manipulating me for evil, I overpowered her and rejected her. But I had already learned a lot about her, and she learned EVERYTHING about me. Anyway, it found Savannah and possessed her, and they both bonded because they both hate my guts. So since the Djinn knows who I am and knows all my moves and everything, so does Savannah now. Assassina doesn't even set off my Ninja Sense." Ninjetta sighed.  
"Oh. So she…er…THEY must really hate you now then, huh?" Danny asked.  
"You have no idea." Ninjetta sighed.

Meanwhile, Vexus reclined in a command seat on her cloaked spaceship and smirked evilly as she looks at the news report of the ghost possessed Cluster Robots and Joxer's attack on the museum.  
"Foolish humans! They cannot defeat beings under our control!" laughed Queen Vexus.

Suddenly a drone walked onto the command deck. Vexus' chair wheeled around to look at him.

"Yes?" She said sternly.

"Oh Mighty and Powerful Overlady Vexus," he said groveling, "The prisoner has awoken from its slumber, your Most Magnificent Excellency."

"Fantastic," Vexus said, "I must pay _it_ a visit."

Vexus arose form her seat and made her way to the detention level.

Inside her glass cell, Dr. Wakeman tried pounding the glass panels until they would shatter. She had no such luck, as every time she impacted the pane, she just bounced off as the glass vibrated for a moment. Still she kept trying. She threw herself into the pane again, falling back down as the pane continued to shudder.

"You're wasting your time, Wakeman." Vexus said as she walked into the room, "That glass is made from the absolute densest, unbreakable plastic in the cosmos. Nothing can get through it, certainly not you."

"Vexus," Wakeman glared, "I knew it would only be a matter of time before you crawled out of the woodwork again. I must say though that anytime would have been too soon."

"Love your welcome, Mrs. Wakeman." Queen Vexus said, glaring back. "By the way, you may not notice, but we have stolen the last two Mystic Gems, and have taken some hostages as well. They will be perfect sacrifices to Asteroth when we release him."

"Asteroth?" Wakeman said, "Where have I heard that name before?"

"Asteroth is a mystical demon," Vexus explained, "And we shall use his power to destroy the universe! And as I understand it, you are well versed in knowledge of him."

Wakeman glared, "So you're gong to use me to find out how to release him?"

"Dear lady, perish the thought," Vexus hissed, "We just want you out of the way…permanently!"

"Hold on one moment," Wakeman said, "Do you mean Asteroth is the demon that's entrapped within these three Mystic Gems?"

"The very same." Vexus said.

"Wait!" Wakeman gasped. "You can't! You can't release Asteroth! If you do, you may not be able to control him!"

"We don't have to." Vexus said, "We'll ally ourselves with him and he will wreak havoc upon this insignificant world and you will all be at our mercy!"

"Vexus!" Wakeman said, "I'm warning you! You will not be able to handle Asteroth!"

"Right…" Vexus said, ignoring her, "The visit was fun, Wakeman, but now that we have all three gems, we are unstoppable! And I do believe we have a demon to release upon humanity."

With that, Vexus walked out of the detention area, leaving a very flabbergasted Dr. Wakeman.

"Oh my," she said, "This can only end badly. I hope XJ-9 gets here soon, or the consequences could be severely horrendous!"

Back in his office, Stan Matthews reclined back in his chair, still smoking a cigar. He opened his mouth and steadily exhaled so that the smoke escaped in a large, thick billow.

Suddenly, the door burst harshly open with a loud thud as Joxer kicked it open. Stan sat up sharply as Joxer stood in the doorway grimacing furiously.

"It's about time you got back," Stan said laconically, reclining back in his chair, "It doesn't take two hours to forcefully raid a museum and steal one freaking gem."

Joxer only growled.

"I trust you DO have the gem, correct son?" the elder Matthews said, "It'd be a shame if you screwed this up."

At those words, Joxer completely lost what little control he had. In a fit of rage, he grabbed the door he'd just kicked open and completely ripped it from its hinges. With a mighty heave, he threw the door edge-first at his father's head.

Stan Matthews sighed in annoyance as he sat forward, the door still rocketing toward him.

Suddenly, in a swirl of smoke, Plasmius appeared in the door's path. He held his hand up, glowing bright pink and shot a large beam of ectoplasmic energy at the projectile, completely disintegrating it in midair.

Joxer gasped, in bared-teeth astonishment and frustration.

"You! You…" He stammered, "How DARE YOU!!!"

"Settle down, boy." Plasmius ordered, "I will not stand for this, and neither will your father. Now stand down."

"My FATHER?!" Joxer howled, "My _FATHER!?!_ My 'father' is a backstabbing, distrusting…"

"ENOUGH." Stan boomed standing up just as sharply as he sat, "ALAN, THE GEM. NOW."

"You know what?" Joxer said, angrily pointing at his father, "I don't even have the gem, Assassina does, and even if I did, I couldn't really give a rat's arse about it! You and your stupid little ritual can go to—!"

At that very moment a long, black tendril prodded the back of Joxer's head, and he froze in fear instantly as a shockingly cold sensation washed over him.

"Now, now," Assassina said, "There's no use for that kind of language, especially when talking to your father. He's just trying to secure his assets as any good businessman does."

Assassina removed the tendril from Joxer's head and he returned to a normal state of consciousness with a violent shiver.

Matthews and Plasmius gasped in shock as she sauntered in, hips swiveling, and carrying the gem.

"What was that?" Plasmius demanded to know.

"Something _you_ can't do, I'm sure." Assassina said disgustedly as she diminutively sized up the ghost in front of her, "Now move out of my way so that we can get this over with."

"Excellent," Stan smirked greedily as Assassina set the gem on his desk, "I will notify Vexus. The ritual shall begin immediately."

Stan opened a cover on his desk and pressed a button.

Within seconds, Vexus teleported directly into Stan Matthew's office, carrying a large case.

"The third Gem is ours, Vexus!" Matthews said, "Give me the case with the other two."

"As you wish," Vexus complied, laying the chest on Stan's desk.

Stan opened the case, and took out the remaining two Gems and held it in his hand with the other. He held them up above his head, cackling evilly. The rest of the villains stepped back, as they expected Asteroth to come forth from the Gems.

When he didn't, they stood back up confused.

"Well, is it going to work or not?" Vlad snapped.

"Yes I agree. I thought once they were together then Asteroth would come forth." Vexus added.

"SILENCE!" Matthews snapped wildly, lurching forward with bared teeth. Everyone, save for Assassina, jumped back in alarm. Stan regained composure, adjusting his tie with his free hand.

"Yes. Well," Stan said pseudo-calmly, "Apparently there was a miscalculation on my part that I had only recently discovered."

"A MISCALCULATION!?!" Joxer screamed as he flew off the handle again, "Why you miserable, stupid son of a—"

Assassina raised her tendrils to him again, and Joxer immediately stopped his sentence short.

"What _sort_ of miscalculation?" Joxer grumbled, returning to a more civil tone.

"As it turns out," Stan continued, "According to the legend, for the gems to work correctly there must be a coating of blood on each of them, each from a different person, according to what they consider their blood."

"Well, if that's all…" Vlad said, phasing back into his human form, "I'm willing to donate to the cause."

Vlad pulled out a small dagger from the inside of his coat pocket.

"No Vlad!" Stan boomed, "Save your blood."

The group of villains looked at Stan awkwardly.

"According to legend," Stan explained, "The gems draw their power from those whose blood is used. So, in essence, we need the blood of very powerful individuals indeed."

"Then what's the problem with my blood?" Vlad snarled.

"Absolutely nothing" the elder Matthews grinned evilly, "but why waste your blood and pain when we can get it by more convenient—_younger_—means?"

All of the villains smirked...they knew who was needed.

Jenny landed harshly to the ground, sending out a large spider-crack in the asphalt below as Ninjetta and Danny landed on either side of her. As they looked around, they saw that the entire place was deserted.

"Be quiet," Jenny said, "Who knows what's going on, or who's still hanging out here." Danny and Ninjetta nodded.

"Right," Ninjetta said, "Now there has to be something around here that'll lead us to the villains."

"Let's split up," Danny said, "We'll cover more ground that way, and if any of us run into trouble, just call for help."

Ninjetta winced. "I don't think that such a good idea. They do that in the movies, and everyone ends up getting killed."

"Yeah," Danny smiled, "but were any of them super-powered Ghosts, Robots or Ninjas?"

"Fine." Ninjetta conceded, "but be careful, and come back to this spot, if there's too much trouble to handle."

"Got it." Jenny said as wheels extended from the bottom of her feet. And she rolled off silently down a corridor.

"They gotta see me if they wanna catch me." Danny smiled as he phased into invisibility and flew off.

Ninjetta jumped up onto the wall, landing on it silently before slinking into the shadows.

Outside, Gaz's car rolled up to the museum. As she shut off the engine and lights, she stepped out and looked around. A strong foreboding shook her.

Something was wrong. Where were the heroes?

Sam had gotten out of the passenger side and had begun to let Tucker and Tommy out of the back seat.

"No." Gaz said, "Stay in the car. This could be dangerous."

"But Gaz," Sam protested, "Our friends are in there and we're going to help them any way we can."

Gaz turned to look at Sam.

"The best thing you can do," Gaz said, "Is remain in the car and out of the way. Kimi, Jenny and Danny can take care of themselves for the most part, but we don't need mundanes like you guys getting hurt."

With that, Gaz turned in a swirl of black trenchcoat and purple hair and ran off to the entrance, leaving Sam standing statically, her jaw dropped in offense.

"Wh—what?" She stammered, "Mundanes?! Why…why that little..."

"Mundanes?" Tucker repeated, "Man, she's got some nerve."

"Well, she can't talk to us like that," Tommy said, "Let's show her how un-mundane we really are. C'mon!"

"But…" Tucker stammered, "Gaz told us to stay in the car!"

"Yeah," Tommy said, "and she called us Mundane too, so let's go!"

"Eh…" Tucker said, "You guys go ahead, I think I'll stay here."

"Quit messing around Tucker!" Sam said.

Tommy nudged Sam.

"Relax," he said, "My friend Chuckie does this to me all the time, let me handle it."

"Okay, Tucker," Tommy said, nonchalantly walking off, "You can stay here while Sam and I go inside. You can just keep a lookout for when the badguys DO come."

"Wha—when the badguys come?" Tucker said, "What do you mean _lookout_?"

"Oh don't worry," Tommy said as he and Sam started off, "We'll know they're here once you start screaming for help."

As Sam and Tommy started running off, Tommy started counting:

"4…3…2…1..."

"Wait! Wait up!" Tucker said as he took off after the other two, "I changed my mind, I'm coming with you! Strength in numbers, you know!"

"That was amazing Tommy," Sam said, "How'd you do that?"

Tommy smiled. "Eh. It's a gift."

As Ninjetta crawled along the top of the wall, she paused and looked back at the gaping hole at the front of the museum where they—and presumably the villains—had entered. She could see the stars twinkling in the night sky. She peered off back down the hall into the darkness of the museum before her.

She suddenly felt a small shiver in her mid-spine. Something was down there.  
Ninjetta jumped down from the wall and took of in a half-sprint down into the darkness. Farther and farther she ran in until suddenly, her Ninja Sense radiated abruptly and harshly from her head. Ninjetta stopped in her tracks and drew her katana, stancing herself and looking around. She looked around in the darkness, her spine still bristling with her Sense transmitting from her head in almost throbbing waves. The only sound she could hear was the faint huffing of her own breath.

Wait.

Large sword in mid-swath. It's coming from behind.

JUMP!

Ninjetta jumped suddenly and flipped over, slashing her blade below her head to block the incoming strike. As the two blades clashed, a large spark spit forth, lighting the darkness.

As Ninjetta landed, she saw him. The Ninja Ghost stood before her, grimacing fiercely, possessing a new mecha-suit.

"You!" Ninjetta grated.

"Hello, young one," The Ninja Ghost cackled, "Prepare to meet your ancestors!"

"Oh, get a life." Ninjetta cracked as she readied her sword, "Literally."

Danny glided through the air, still remaining invisible; looking for any sort of clue that could lead him to where the villains could be. He prayed he didn't actually run into one.

As he flew forward, he heard a small noise. He gasped as he turned quickly to look over his shoulder. He gazed back down the hall to see if anybody had been following him, but all he saw was where he'd already been. He floated down closer to the ground and continued flying on down the hall, peering back every so often too see if anyone really had been following him. Something about this place didn't feel right. He couldn't sense any ghosts around; his breath hadn't gone cold, but something about this dark, damaged museum gave even the Ghost Boy the creeps.

Danny spun around again suddenly when he thought he'd heard another sound again. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

He started to fly forward again, but as he turned around, his face met with the huge jaws of a Tyrannosaurus skull.

Danny jumped back and let out a yelp as he unconsciously phased solid again and hit the ground hard. He looked back up at the skeletal display of the T-Rex in front of him and heaved a heavy sigh.

Man, he thought as he stood up and dusted himself off, why am I feeling so jumpy?

Suddenly he felt a tap on the back of his shoulder.

Danny jumped again and grabbed the arms of whoever was behind him.

"HEY!" Sam yelled, "Danny! It's me!"

Danny heaved another sigh as he let go of Sam. Tommy and Tucker walked up next to her.

"Jeez." Danny said, "Sorry, I'm just a little on edge. There's just something about this place that gives me the heebie-jeebies."

As Danny drew in his next breath, it _froze_ in his lungs, and as he gasped it out, it fogged heavier than it ever had before.

"Like that?" Sam gulped in worry.

Danny turned around and suddenly, from the darkness materialized not just one ghost…

…but several.

Skullker, Technus, Desiree, Lunch Lady, Walker, Ember, and the Fright Knight appeared before him, all armed to the teeth in new mecha-battle suits.

"Uh, yeah," Danny answered Sam, "That would definitely give me the heebie-jeebies!"

"Uh, Tommy," Tucker said as he jabbed him with his elbow, "I think the badguys are here."

Suddenly a ferocious cackling filled the air around them as Vlad Plasmius descended though the ceiling.

"Well, hello, young Daniel," he sneered, "So glad you could join the party."

"Sam," Danny whispered back to her, "get Tucker and Tommy out of here, now!"

Meanwhile, Jenny rolled down the hall, hunkered down so that nobody could see her. She was scanning the area for any vital signs—anybody who might be hiding out, waiting to ambush her. Suddenly her internal computer blipped. There were two different vitals in the vicinity, dead ahead.

As she came out into a large exhibition room, she gasped as a horrible sight took her.

"Oh no!" she gasped, "Brad! Tuck!"

There she saw her two friends, tied up and hanging by their ankles from the ceiling right below a skylight. Moonlight shone down upon them; Jenny could already tell that they had both redded-out. She switched off her sensors and rushed over to them as fast as she could.

Jenny engaged her rocket boosters from the soles of her feet and flew up to them to get their heads reoriented. Thankfully, Jenny scanned them and made sure that they were okay. She cut the ropes that held them and carried them back down to the floor. Once on the ground, Jenny sat them up and tried to revive them, it was a few minutes before Brad came to.

"Unngh," Brad moaned, "Where am I?"

"Brad! Brad!" Jenny said worriedly, "It's me! It's Jenny! Are you okay?"

"My head is _pounding,_" he answered.

At that moment, Tuck also regained consciousness.

"Tuck!" Jenny said, "Are you guys alright?"

"Oh man!" Tuck said, "Where are we?"

"What happened?" Jenny said, "Who did this to you?"

Once again, the hall filled with evil, sadistic cackling as Jenny looked up and around. The gears in Jenny's chest began to turn faster as her oil pump began to beat harder.

"I've gotta get you guys out of here," Jenny said as she picked the two boys up.

Suddenly, a horrible realization occurred to Tuck.

"Jenny no!" the young boy screamed, "It's a trap!"

"What?" Jenny said.

Suddenly, Jenny was hit hard from behind and knocked to the ground. Whatever hit her back actually HURT.

It STILL hurt! It BURNED!

"Auuugh!" Jenny screamed, "Acid!? What the—?!"

The wicked laughter became louder as Joxer the Clown walked into the Moonbeam, towering over the felled Teenage Robot.

"You!" Jenny gasped with rage.

"That's not all," a second, familiar voice chortled as Vexus appeared next to him from the darkness.

"Well, well," the evil clown giggled, "The gang's all here, it looks like. Welcome XJ-9, you know my good friend and associate Vexus here. Long time pals you are! Heard so much about you…not all of it good by the way. I hear you fancy yourself a revolutionary. Shame on you."

Joxer walked up closer to Jenny, drawing a cane.

"But allow me to introduce MYSELF." He said, his face faulting into a scowl and his demeanor suddenly turning malevolent, "I am Joxer the Fierce, the one…"

Suddenly, from the bottom of the cane, a large, diamond-tipped blade extended abruptly.

"…Who is DESTROYING YOU!"

The Ninja Ghost charged Ninjetta with amazing speed, but Ninjetta was quicker. She raised her sword to block as their steels clashed, shedding sparks and a loud CLANG that echoed through the exhibit hall. The Ninja Ghost swung back downward but Ninjetta blocked again, and bounced his sword back up. Ninjetta took advantage of the situation and tried to swipe for his head, but the Ninja Ghost blocked and took a swipe at Ninjetta's head. Ninjetta held her katana above her head to block, but as she did, the Ninja Ghost spun around and gave a mighty kick to her stomach, knocking the White Kurenai to the ground.

"And now, little girl," he said, spinning his sword with a flourish, "I shall dispose of you and finally get my revenge once and for all!"

Ninjetta flipped backwards to her feet and flourished her sword as she prepared for the Ninja Ghost to attack her again.

"Bring it, spook," she growled, waving her fingers for him to come.

Suddenly, and literally, from the darkness came an even swifter punch to the side of Ninjetta's head, followed by an elbow to her ribs and a sharp and swift uppercut kick to her face, sending Ninjetta flying across the room, and her sword flying off in the opposite direction. She landed on top of a sculpture, knocking it over with her.

Ninjetta groaned as she sat up and shook her head to keep herself conscious. Before she could get up though, a large black hand stretched out and grabbed her, pulling her up off of her feet. The darkness itself around her began to condense until it finally materialized into Assassina. The room around them would have seemed to be brighter, if not for the fact that nearly everything was engulfed in black flames. Assassina began to squeeze Ninjetta's throat, and the heroine started to gasp and cough, grabbing Assassina's hand, struggling and flailing wildly.

"Hey 'girl friend'," the villainess cackled, "I believe we have some unfinished business to attend to."  
"Remember, leave her alive so that I may kill her myself!" yelled the Ninja Ghost.  
"Like I could forget," said Assassina, rolling her eyes.

"Prepare to taste the fury of my five food groups of DOOM!" The Lunch Lady bellowed as she flew up in the air. A wave of sausages rose up behind her, seemingly from out of nowhere, and started to crash toward Danny.

Danny gasped as he quickly flew up and over the deadly wave of luncheon meats.

"Wow." He remarked to himself, "That…was weird."

He turned his attention back to Lunch Lady as the porky riptide prepared for another assault. She raised her hands, manipulating the meat for another rush at her foe.

"Hey, Lunch Lady!" Danny yelled firing off an energy blast at her, "Make like a cheap bun and split!"

The blast hit the Lunch Lady, sending her flying down the hall, followed by the punishing flow of bratwurst that she forgot to let go of.

Suddenly a large hand slammed Danny to the ground. Desiree's booming laughter filled the halls as her hand started to glow with ecto-energy.

"I WISH," she roared, "FOR YOU TO PERISH!"

But before she could fire her ecto-beam at him, Danny fired his own at her, knocking her back.

"And I wish not to!" Danny yelled as he flew at her, shoulder checking her into another display.

Before Danny could recoil to strike back at her again, Technus tagged him hard with an energy blast.

Sam, Tucker and Tommy watched in horror as the ghosts began to gang up on Danny.

"C'mon!" Sam said, waving her hand at the boys, "We've got to help Danny!"

They started to run to help their friend, but suddenly screeched to a halt as a giant metal boot stomped into their path. Skullker towered above them, arms folded, his armor face grinning widely.

"As for you three," he said, "you seem like the odd people out!"

Suddenly a large gun appeared out of his arm and aimed straight at the teens.

"So I shall turn you three into ghosts like everyone else!" the evil ghost laughed.

Sam, Tommy, and Tucker gasped and grabbed each other, waiting for the impending…

"Good!" remarked a screeching female voice, "That leaves me out of the equation!"

Skullker turned in the direction of the voice, only to see Gaz, in midair, leaping from the darkness. What little light there was glinted harshly off of her chrome spider legs; fully extended in attack formation, as she closed in on her victim.

Before Skullker could react to phase into intangibility, Gaz flew into him, walloping him a harsh blow to his head case. Skullker flew back several feet, crashing to the ground harshly.

The dark woman stood there over her prey, stanced for a fight, her spider legs primed for battle.

"Gaz!" Sam cheered.

"When I said 'stay in the car'," Gaz said, not so much as turning around, or changing the expression on her face, "It wasn't a freaking suggestion!"

Skullker struggled to his feet.

"Who are you?" He demanded of his assailant.

"DUH." Gaz sneered, "Were you not paying attention the last time I wasted your sorry behind?

I AM YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!"

Gaz and Skullker roared at each other as they charged forward into battle.

Danny dodged blast after blast as Desiree tried to shoot him out of the air.

The ghost boy finally found an opening and blasted Desiree with a powerful ecto beam.

Suddenly, another of his old foes checked Danny hard to the ground.

"Well, well. Remember me, concert crasher?" Ember cackled deviously.

"Of course I remember you, Ember McLame-o," Danny said as he charged Ember. The rocker ghost darted out of his way just in time. Ember then flew at Danny and bashed him in the gut with her fist. Danny reeled over hard, but before he could recover, Ember flipped him over her shoulder. Danny hit the ground and skidded up against the wall.

"You hurt my feelings, ghost child," Ember said with a scowl, as she slung her guitar over her shoulder and amped up the volume, "No matter. You won't think I'm a lame-o after you hear my new ear-hurting hit!"

Ember slammed down hard on her strings and slid in hard on her high notes as a blast reverberated from the guitar. Danny gasped and dove out of the way as the blast blew a large chunk out of the wall where he'd just sat.

"Heard it!" Danny cracked wise, "It sucks!"

"Hear this!" Ember jammed hard again and aimed right at the ghost boy. Danny tried to dart out of the way, but it was too late. The reverb hit Danny hard and held onto him as Ember slid in high again, harshly tapping her high strings and cackling maniacally. Danny screamed in pain as the reverb beam ripped through him.

As Ember let go, Danny fell back down to the ground harshly, ghostly bluish smoke steaming from his back. Danny tried to regain his composure, but there was a harsh, painful ringing in his ears.

"NOW, how do you like my new hit, you little punk?" Ember cackled again.  
All Danny saw were Ember's lips moving. He couldn't hear a thing she said. There was too much static noise.

"WHAT?" Danny yelled. He could barely hear himself.

Vlad chortled evilly. "That was magnificent, Ember! You made him deaf?"

"You got it, pops!" Ember smiled, "I put him under my Too-Close-to-the-Amp Spell. All he can hear is the ringing in his ears! Now he won't hear his friends' cries for help or that big ghost that's about to sneak up behind him."

Sure enough, Walker two-fisted Danny back to the ground from behind. The crooked Ghost Warden smiled deviously as he grabbed Danny by his collar.

"I've finally captured you again, Ghost Child." Walker grated.  
Danny still couldn't hear him.

"HUH?"  
Walker sighed in annoyance.

"I'VE FINALLY CAPTURED YOU AGAIN, GHOST CHILD!" he yelled in Danny's ear, in hopes that Danny could hear him.

"I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Danny screamed.

"YOU'RE GOING BACK TO JAIL!" Walker bellowed so hard that the ground beneath them shook.

"I DON'T HAVE A BLACK SNAIL!" Danny yelled back at him, "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!"

Just then Technus flew up to Ember.

"HEY!" he yelled, straight into her ear, "WHAT ARE WE YELLING FOR?!"

Ember swung around hard.

"WHY YOU LITTLE…" she screamed, before she punched Technus' lights out.

"And now," Joxer said as he closed in on Jenny, "Here's the part where I end your miserable Life…"

Just then he contorted his hands into small fin-shapes on the top of his head and scrunched his face up in a complete mockery of his android adversary.

"…As a Teen-age Ro-bot!" he teased in song.

"Oh, no you DIDN'T!" Jenny seethed as she back-flipped onto her hands, and then sprung off of them, kicking Joxer in the chest as she landed. The evil clown flew straight across the room and into the wall several feet away.

Suddenly Vexus threw a punch toward Jenny, but Jenny ducked out of the way just in time, grabbing a hold of Vexus' arm. Jenny yanked Vexus forward and kneed the evil former-queen in the faceplate. Vexus braced for impact, but swung around and leg-swept Jenny off of her feet, felling XJ-9 once more.

Thinking quickly, Jenny landed on one of her hands, and rotated her waist quickly. As she did that, she raised her leg and bashed Vexus again and again in the face with her feet at high RPM. Vexus reeled back hard, stepping back twice before she landed on her knee.

Jenny smirked as she righted herself.

"You're losing it, you old piece of junkware!" Jenny said smirking.

"Don't be too sure of that, XJ-9!" Vexus snarled.

"Let's cut to the chase," Jenny growled back at her, "Where's my mom? If you hurt her, I swear you won't live long enough to regret it!"

"Worried about dear old Mommy, are you, XJ-9?" Vexus taunted her opponent, "Don't worry, she's still alive in high security in the brig on my ship, however she won't be for very long. As soon as this pathetic little world is ours, I shall take her into the farthest reaches of space and jettison her out into the cold vacuum through the garbage chute."

Joxer staggered back up to where Vexus was standing, glaring and fuming at XJ-9 as a stream of blood dribbled down the side of his sheet white face.

"Meanwhile," he growled, "I'm going to rip you apart with my bare hands, circuit by agonizing circuit…" he then started to chuckle with murderous bloodlust, "…And I'll make sure you're still FUNCTIONING while I do it, so you feel each and every wire ripped from your body!"

"And then if you're lucky," Vexus finished with a smirk, "I shall jettison your dismantled carcass along with her."

Jenny, Vexus and Joxer circled around each other. Jenny was trying to compute, as fast as electronically possible, how she would be able to take on two villains at the same time. More importantly, how was she going to get herself and her friends out of this bind and rescue her mother?

"I know what you're thinking, girlie," Joxer grated, "Oh dear, how'm I gonna save my poor defenseless little Mommy?"

"What you fail to realize, XJ-9" Vexus hissed, "Is that you'll be completely destroyed long before you'll be able to do anything about it."

"We'll see about that." Jenny said, scowling at her opponents.

An airborne Ninjetta crashed into another sculpture with a loud "OOF!"

As she regained composure, Kimi looked up to see an airborne Assassina, getting ready to pounce on her. Quickly, Ninjetta curled up her legs and kicked Sassy as hard as she could while the villainess was still in mid-air. The force of Ninjetta's blow contorted Assassina so much that as her midsection took the brunt of Kimi's blow, her upper body still traveled forward with the momentum stretching just a little more than humanly possible. Ninjetta quickly seized Assassina's elongated neck and punched her as hard as she could, square across her face. As Assassina's Body snapped back into humanoid form, Ninjetta used the momentum to send her flying again—straight at her second adversary. Ninjetta focused her powers on the Ninja Ghost, putting every last ounce of strength into the blow. Unbeknownst to her however, she began to glow with somewhat of a golden aura. Suddenly, just before Ninjetta could strike, the Ninja Ghost went intangible.

However, Kimi's brain didn't have enough time to swear before she felt the blow actually _make contact_ with the intangible Ninja Ghost. He appeared into plain view again rocketing airborne through the exhibit hall, ricocheting off of a pillar before crashing completely through another sculpture and again into the ground, uprooting the tile and exposing the cement under-floor.

Ninjetta was taken aback.

"Wow!" she said to herself, "how did I do that?"

The Ninja Ghost staggered to his feet, angrier than ever. Screaming and sword drawn for attack, he charged Ninjetta with tremendous speed. Quickly, Ninjetta jumped into the air, as high as she could, somersaulting. As she flipped around, she noticed that Assassina had been charging her as well from behind. Sassy and the Ninja Ghost collided harshly as Ninjetta grabbed onto a pillar and stuck to it. She almost let go of it from laughing so hard.

"Well, you can certainly file that one in the 'Bumbling Goons' files," Ninjetta mocked.

Rubbing his head, The Ninja Ghost glared at Ninjetta.

"Get down here!" he screamed as he ran up and kicked the pillar, cracking it to the point that it started to topple.

Ninjetta jumped from her perch, landed squarely on the ground and grabbed her katana from underneath a pile of pulverized sculptures.

Assassina and the Ninja Ghost faced Ninjetta. The Apparition bared his sword, and the Djinn formed her own from her hands. The White Kurenai slowly stood up, stancing herself for battle. She glared down her opponents as they returned their poisonous gazes.

All was silent.

Suddenly, The Ninja Ghost emitted another deafening war cry and Assassina shrilly followed suit, the both of them charging Ninjetta.

Gaz's spider legs clanked across the floor noisily as she and Skullker circled each other. The two opponents glared ferociously as they waited for the other to attack.

Suddenly, a glowing green blade jutted out quickly from the gauntlet of Skullker's armor as he lunged for Gaz. The dark woman however, raised her spider legs, safely extending her body out of the way, while using two of them to strike Skullker from behind. Skullker's face hit the ground as he tumbled underneath Gaz. She jumped over him using her spider legs as he tumbled back to his feet. Gaz stuck two spider legs into the wall on either side of her high above her head and pulled herself up by them.

As Skullker stood back up, Gaz hurled herself at Skullker, kicking him square in the head, felling him again.

Skullker recovered back to his feet, growling in anger. Skullker lunged at Gaz again, but she quickly dove out of the way of Skullker's blade.  
"Hold still you!" growled Skullker.  
"Now how stupid would that be?" Gaz asked, smirking as she dodged another of Skullker's parries.

Gaz used two of her spider legs to sweep Skullker to the ground again. But as Skullker fell, he grabbed the spider legs that tripped him and yanked Gaz down with him. Gaz winced in pain as she hit the ground, but Skullker got up before she did—still holding onto her legs.

"I have you now, spider-woman." He growled with an evil grin. He yanked Gaz toward him and grabbed her neck.

"Argh...Let me go, Jackass!" Gaz yelled. She tried to struggle free of his grasp, but Skullker's grip was too strong. Suddenly Skullker hurled Gaz across the hall into a diorama display. Gaz plunged head-first into one of the papier-mâché velociraptors that was set up attacking a smaller dinosaur.

Gaz pried the small, be-feathered raptor off of her head in time to see Skullker flying at her, weapons deployed. She quickly dove out of the way Skullker crashed down onto the unfortunate raptor. Skullker wheeled around quickly as Gaz bounded out of the diorama and shot at her with his proton gun. The blast slammed Gaz back into the ground, landing a direct hit on her PAK. Too damaged to do anything else, the PAK's emergency damage control system auto-retracted the spider legs.

"Great," Gaz glowered as Skullker charged her again, "Where's my freaking bat when I need it?"

Skullker grabbed the now-defenseless Gaz again and disposed of her by throwing her into another diorama.

Danny was having a little trouble of his own trying to fend off his own opponents. However, without the ability to hear, it was easier said than done as one ghost would attack from the front and two others would attack from the rear. In no time at all, the ghosts were starting to overpower Danny.

Sam, Tucker and Tommy, had taken cover behind a Stegosaurus.

"Danny's in trouble out there!" Sam said, "There's got to be something we can do to help!"  
"But what _can _we do, Sam?" Tucker said, "It's a veritable melee out there!"

"Man," Sam grunted in frustration, "If only I had my backpack! Then I'd have the Specter Deflector and the Jack-O-Nine Tails!"

"The Specter Deflector?" Tommy asked incredulously, "and the _what-_a-nine?"

"They're ghost weapons!" Sam explained, "And if I had them right now, I could really get out there and kick some—"

"SHHHH!" Tucker said as he hushed Sam and Tommy and made them take cover just as Ember floated by.

Ember had broken off from the brawl to step back and admire her handiwork.

"Hmmph," she chuckled, "That little whelp will never be able to win a fight if he can't hear anything. Soon, I'll have that little punk out of the way, and then I'll finally have my name up in lights: Hello Ember McLain, and good bye Danny Phantom!"

All the while that Ember was talking, Sam was fuming.

"You…Little…Twerp!"

Suddenly, Sam jumped out quickly from her hideaway and charged Ember, knocking the ghost into a display case.

Ember got up growling and grabbed Sam by her throat. Sam struggled, but she couldn't make Ember release her powerful grip.

"You little Phantom-Groupie!" Ember yelled as she began to squeeze, "I'm going to wring your scrawny little neck!"

Danny tried to beat back all the ghosts that had surrounded him, but they'd all started ganging back up on him at once. Suddenly, his breath froze again warning him of even more danger. He looked up and saw Ember, fiercely clutching Sam's neck as she tried in vain to wriggle free.

Danny immediately flew into a blind rage and knocked two ghosts head together in front of him. Walker tried to Grab Danny' ankle, but Danny kicked him in the face as hard as he could, and then instinctively swung around, smashing the advancing Skullker with a mighty kick. Any other ghosts that tried to grab him were suddenly met with a harsh blow from an ecto-beam. Suddenly free of the brawling ghosts' grasp, he charged quickly at Ember.

"LET HER GO!!" He yelled just as he rammed into her with all the force and speed he could muster. The blow caused Ember to let go of her victim and go flying straight into the wall on the other side of the exhibit hall.

Danny caught Sam in his arms and she stared at her hero in a romantic awe. Suddenly, Sam remembered that she wasn't supposed to be looking at Danny quite like that.

"You saved me!" Sam said, blushing bright red, "Thanks!"

"No Probl—" Danny stopped immediately, realizing that he'd suddenly regained his ability to hear.

"Hey, I can hear again!" he cheered, "Taking out Ember must have…"

"Look out!" Sam yelled as Technus tackled Danny to the ground.

As Vexus charged Jenny, the Teenage Robot ducked out of the way of Vexus' blow. Jenny jumped up and kicked Vexus hard in the back of her head, knocking her back. Joxer then charged Jenny, swiping at her with his cane blade. It nicked her arm hard, gashing her shoulder armoring.

Jenny screamed in pain as she favored her arm. Vexus came up behind her again and kicked her down hard. As she hit the ground, Joxer assisted by heel-kicking the android in her midsection.

Tuck, meanwhile grabbed onto Brad as they watched their heroine go down.

"B-Brad….Jenny's going to be okay…right?" Tuck said, on the verge of tears.

"I hope so…I mean, yeah" Brad said, trying to reassure his scared little brother (and himself as well), "Jenny's going to be okay, she always wins, right? She can take these clowns."

However Jenny was having a little more trouble than Brad would admit. She did however manage to get away from Vexus and Joxer, for a little while at least, but as she tried to rocket up into the air, she was shot with acid again on the sole of her foot.

Her rockets damaged, Jenny crashed back down to the ground. Jenny tried to get up but before she could move a motor, Vexus jumped back on top of her and grabbed her head.

"Well, well," Vexus cackled evilly, "It looks like the end of the road for you, XJ-9!"

"It's not over yet, Vexus!" Jenny said in defiance. However, upon hearing that, Vexus slammed Jenny's face back into the ground, making her eat the marble flooring.

"Oh, it's pretty damn over," Joxer cackled along, "But before I completely destroy you, allow me to do one thing first."

Joxer raised his blade, but then suddenly stopped.

"Well, it's not like you'll actually _allow_ me to, but I was just being ironic…" he said, derisively.

"Oh, will you just get on with it?!" Vexus hissed.

Without any further ado, Joxer plunged his blade into the gash he had already left in Jenny's arm, and wriggled it harshly. Jenny screamed in an agony only a robot could understand.

Joxer retracted his blade with a turning motion as oil began to pour out of Jenny's arm servo. The motor controlling Jenny's arm movements immediately seized, and her arm went limp.

Vexus took out her gem, and held it under the stream of oil until there was a thick coating covering the gem.

"Yes" Vexus hissed, "We have one."

"And now," Joxer said to the struggling Jenny, "my uniplegic android, now is the time to destroy you!"

"No." Vexus said, "We are under strict orders. We must collect her blood and leave."  
"What?" Joxer snarled, much like his father had always done to him, "I came to destroy something, I threatened to destroy her, and I plan to do it, now get off of her so I can rip her apart."  
"Stand down," Vexus hissed at Joxer, for what seemed to be the millionth time he'd been told that today, "Firstly, if anyone is to destroy XJ-9, it shall be ME, and secondly, we are about to release a demon upon humanity, the likes of which she won't be able to defeat anyway. Now let's go!"

"No!" Joxer stood in defiance.

Suddenly, Jenny grabbed Joxer's leg with her good arm and swung him around to the ground. Vexus tried again to subdue Jenny, but Jenny bucked her partially off of her body. Jenny quickly kicked Vexus off of her and staggered to her feet. Joxer tried to charge Jenny, but Jenny swung her limp arm around and whacked Joxer as hard as she could with it, knocking him out.

Vexus ran to grab Joxer, and pulled out a teleportation portal.

"This isn't over yet, XJ-9!" Vexus said as her portal opened, "Your hour of doom is at hand, and once we release Asteroth upon humanity, you will NEVER be able to save the world!" With that, Vexus jumped back through her portal, cackling and carrying an unconscious Joxer with her.

Ninjetta blocked her opponents' advances feverishly, as the Ninja Ghost attacked her with his blade and Assassina attacked her with two. Assassina slashed Ninjetta high and low at the same time, forcing Ninjetta to jump and block the thrust to her face all at once. Suddenly, the Ninja Ghost made a swipe for her side But Ninjetta swung her sword around and blocked as she kicked Assassina in the midsection.

The Ninja Ghost swung his sword around again to go for Ninjetta's other side, but Ninjetta blocked that as well, forcing his blade off of her. Suddenly, the Ninja Ghost struck down low and Ninjetta jumped again to avoid his swipe. The Ninja Ghost swung his sword around his back into his other hand and made another swipe for Ninjetta's head. Ninjetta blocked that and swiped at the Ninja Ghost, but he blocked her and swung back around, flourishing his sword as he made another swipe for Ninjetta's side. Ninjetta didn't have time enough to swing her sword over to block before the Ninja Ghost's blade nicked her in her rib. Ninjetta let out a wail of pain as she spun around swiping clean through the Ninja Ghost's head in a fit of agony and fury. Suddenly, a glowing reddish flare trailed from her sword, marking the swath it had traveled in Ninjetta's intently focused swipe.

The Ninja Ghost reeled back clutching his head. It was still in one piece, but amazingly, pain shot across his head right through where the swath of Ninjetta's blade went through. Ninjetta also reeled back, clutching her side as blood dribbled through her fingers.

Taking advantage of the situation, Assassina quickly enlarged her hand and grabbed Ninjetta all in one fist and slammed her into the wall. Ninjetta tried to peel herself away from the hole in the wall she had made, but Assassina hit her again with her other fist and held her there as she slithered up to her.

"Not so good as we thought we were, eh sweetheart?" Assassina laughed.

"RRRRGH!" Ninjetta grunted as she tried to struggle away from Assassina's grasp, "Let me go!"

"Let you go?" Assassina hissed, "Now why would I do such a stupid thing like that?"

The Ninja Ghost shook his head and ran back up to where Sassy and Ninjetta were.

"You little wench!" he grated, "That is exactly where Sakinako hit me when he killed me. And you have aggravated my old wound!"

"I thought you were dead," Assassina looked at the Ninja Ghost incredulously, "You can't feel anything."

"I felt that!" The Ninja Ghost said, "I don't know how, but she has some sort of mystical power that cam make me feel fatal pain!"

"And yet you're already dead." Assassina chuckled, "So she can just keep doing it again and again and again…"

"AAARRGGH!" The Ninja Ghost wailed, "That causes me pain just thinking about it!"

"Come to think of it," Assassina said, "I thought that was pretty weird how your sword glowed like that. How'd you do it?"

"Eat it, you old hag!" Ninjetta yelled back.

"Touchy, touchy," Assassina growled, "All we wanna do is kill ya."

"Let me do it!" The Ninja Ghost said, raising his sword, "She must pay for making me feel pain!"

"Hold it, Doofus!" Assassina said, "We need to get her blood first."

"Well, why not let me kill her now?" The Ninja Ghost complained, "We'll still get her blood!"

"You and your sick little obsessions are just going to have to wait while I do this." Assassina said, glaring at the Ninja Ghost. He was really starting to annoy her.

Besides, what makes him think he should get the privilege of killing Ninjetta? If any one should, it should be her.

Assassina moved her enlarged thumb out of the way and grabbed Ninjetta's side, right where her wound was, making it bleed even harder. Ninjetta screamed in pain as Assassina squeezed harder, at the same time, reverse-swallowing the gem she had been carrying with her the whole time. Ninjetta's blood oozed over it, coating it with a deep red tint.

"Got it." Assassina said with an evil smirk as she held up the now-ruby-red gem in her hand.

"NOW can I kill her?" asked the Ninja Ghost raising his sword.

"No." Sassy said, turning her nose up at him.

"Woman! Step out of my way!" the Ninja Ghost said, baring his katana to her.

Assassina growled in anger. With a quick tendril, she disarmed the Ninja Ghost and grabbed him, holding him up in the air. The Ninja Ghost tried to go intangible, but he couldn't. He was trapped in Assassina's clutches.

Danny Kicked Technus off of him and shot an ecto-blast at him. Technus answered back with several blasts of his own. Danny quickly flew out of the way, dodging each of them.

"Thought you could trap me in Level 0, huh?! Well, the only Zero here is going to be you!" Technus laughed evilly, "For I am Technus, Master of Machinery, Lord of Electronic Mayhem, Wizard of——".

He stopped suddenly as an ecto-blast from Danny hit him (thankfully) square in the mouth.

"Don't you ever shut up?" yelled Danny, "More like Earl of Elongated Egomaniacal Lectures!"

"Enough of this foolishness!" Vlad said, finally stepping in, "This fight has gone on long enough! Time to end this, Phantom!"

"Oh shut up and fight, Pixie Ears!" Danny remarked as his hands began to glow a bright green. Vlad answered back with a bright red blaze of energy of his own. Danny dodged Vlad's shot, and fired off a salvo of his own in Vlad's direction, but Vlad beat them off as if they were nothing, and flew at the Phantom. Danny Field-Goal kicked Vlad in the face as hard as he could. Vlad reeled back and shot off another energy blast at Danny. Danny dodged again and flew hard at Vlad, attempting to ram him, but Vlad punched Danny across his face and sent him into a wall. Danny reeled back off of the wall and looked up to see Vlad charge him again. Danny quickly few out of the way but Vlad turned around and bounded off the wall. Danny landed back onto the ground and turned around. He didn't have enough time or room to use his wail, so Danny did the only thing he could do at a moment's notice. He formed an energy ball with his hands and compressed it full of as much ghost energy as he could fit in it. Vlad started to charge Danny again, but Danny was ready for him Danny shot off his energy ball at the oncoming Plasmius.

Plasmius rolled his eyes and chuckled at the naïve little ghost boy.

Vlad stopped suddenly, and raised his ghost shield to the blast. However, instead of deflecting it, the energy ball was absorbed and enveloped into it to form a bright pink energy ball. All the ghosts and humans in the room gasped in amazement as Vlad grabbed the energy ball and focused it at Danny Phantom.

"What the—" was all Danny had time to scream before the enormous energy ball impacted him, not only blowing him clear across the exhibit hall, but even blasting the wall out on the other side with a tremendous explosion. Danny Phantom lay injured among the rubble of the wall on the ground and lost control of his ghost powers, phasing back into his human form. Danny groaned in pain as he tried to get up, but Plasmius grabbed him by the shirt collar.

"You want to know an awful truth, Daniel?" Vlad cackled evilly, "All this time, throughout all the fights we've had in the past year and a half, I have been holding out on you. You could not even _begin_ to understand the amazing power which I possess, which you, young Phantom, may never even realize on your own yourself."

"You…you can't win, Vlad." Danny struggled, "Whatever it is that you have planned, me and my friends will stop you."

"My, my, my." Vlad chortled, "Defeated for the second time today and still trying to front such bravado of defiance. I hate to be the bearer of bad news Daniel, but I _have_ won. I have defeated you, and all your other friends have been defeated as well. Your sorry, pathetic excuse for a hero team has been vanquished by a much stronger foe than you ever could have hoped to defeat. It's over."

Danny grit his teeth together, "You're lying!"

"I play dirty, Daniel," Plasmius cackled, pulling out his knife, "but I never lie."

With that, Vlad stabbed Danny in the arm with his knife.

Danny howled in agony as Vlad produced his gem and coated it with Danny's blood. As Danny's blood completely coated the gem, a harsh crackle of lightning filled the sky, accompanied immediately by an almost unbearably loud boom of thunder.

Assassina looked up to see the lightning and winced with pain as the thunder clapped harshly in her ears. She dropped Ninjetta who fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, shortly crying out in pain as she jarred her wound.

Assassina began to breathe harder, half with excitement, half with apprehension.

"The Spirit of Asteroth has been awakened." She hissed, with only a slight sense of fear in her voice, "I sense a great fury looming over us, waiting to be freed."  
"But Ninjetta…" The Ninja Ghost said, still bound by Assassina's tendrils.

"Forget her." Assassina said, "Once Asteroth is freed, she's a dead duck anyway. It's time for us to go." With that, Assassina stole away with incredible speed stretching down the hall and flowing like a black airborne stream through the air, the Ninja Ghost still in tow.

Vlad looked back up at the sky as the storm, which had only seemed like a normal thunderstorm before; grow fiercely into a tempest such as he had never seen before in his life. He threw Danny back to the ground, jarring the gash on the boys arm. Danny roared in pain again, but Vlad turned back around to him.

Without warning, Vlad shot a small ectoplasmic beam square at his stab wound. Danny howled in pain again.

"That was a cheap shot!" Growled Danny as he favored his burnt arm.

"Quiet!" Vlad said as he turned his attention back to the storm and back at Danny.

"I've burnt your wound shut," Vlad said, "Pray that you live long enough to thank me for it."

Vlad turned his attention back to the ghosts gathered around him.

"Let's go," he said to them as he walked toward them.

"But," protested Desiree, "What do we do with Danny Phantom and the humans?"

Vlad turned back to see Sam, Tucker and Tommy run up to attend to Danny.

"Leave them." Vlad said, "Once Asteroth is released, they won't stand a ghost of a chance."

With that Vlad disappeared in a swirl of pink smoke and the rest of the ghosts followed.

Ninjetta struggled to her feet and looked back around for her foes, but they had indeed vanished without a trace.

Kimi looked back out the window to the storm looming dangerously overhead. Suddenly, a shrill jar of fear ran up her spine and she froze in utter horror as her Ninja sense buzzed forth from her head with such intensity that it actually began to hurt. That wasn't a normal storm.

Ninjetta started to run back towards the lobby to try and warn the others, but her side sill hurt. She checked her wound to see if it had started to heal yet, but it had only now cauterized itself and stopped bleeding.

Danny was propped up onto Tucker and Tommy who here helping the worn-out Ghost Boy down the hall toward the center lobby. There they met Ninjetta who had just made it there herself.

Tommy saw Ninjetta holding her bloody side.

"Kimi!" He said, running to her, "You've been hurt!"

"It's okay Tommy," Kimi grunted, "It'll heal soon enough…where's Jenny?"

No sooner than when she'd said that, than a staccato of whining motors heralded Jenny's limping advance down the hall. Brad did his best to try and hold her up, as did Tuck, although he was only tall enough to hold Jenny's damaged arm.

"Great," Danny sighed, "We're all hurt, now what do we do?"

Tucker started to panic. "This is horrible, they're going to release Asteroth and the world's going to end and we'll..."

Sam grabbed Tucker and slapped him across the face, calming him down.

"Thanks," Tucker said, though still a little jittery, "I needed that."

Gaz, a bloody mess herself, limped forward. Her teeth clenched tightly together in utter hatred, and her equally tightly clenched fists shuddered with repressed rage.

"If I ever find that Skullker A-hole again…I. Will. KILL HIM! AGAIN!"

As the heroes hobbled back to Gaz' black car, Gaz retrieved her book again.

"Right now, we have an enormous problem on our hands." She said, "According to al the research I've learned from Dr. Wakeman, this storm is due to the fact that Asteroth has been awoken from slumber in suspended animation, and is ready to be released. There has to be something in this book somewhere that tells us how to defeat—" Gaz stopped suddenly as she peeled apart two pages that had seemed to be stuck together. She immediately combed the book for anything that might help. Unfortunately, she found quite the opposite. Gaz' eyes widened with horror as she read.

"What?" Kimi said, "What is it?"

"Oh no." Gaz said in horror, "No…No!"

"What? What is it?" They all asked.

"It...It says here," She stammered in wide-eyed disbelief, "that...that Asteroth, when released, will listen to no one, and he will ally with no one. It goes on to say that he will immediately seek revenge by systematically wiping out humanity for their part in imprisoning him. All that is certain is that the ones who release him will be the last to fall."  
"Does it say how to defeat him?" Tommy asked.

"No," Gaz said,"It all but says 'Abandon Hope All Ye Who Read This!'"

Suddenly, Jenny perked up in attention. Her inboard tracking device blipped as she scanned the sky for a disturbance. A ping ricocheted back to her almost immediately.

"Guys!" she said, "Just through those clouds, is Vexus' ship! I just read its radar signature!"

"Vexus' ship?" Ninjetta said looking straight up.

"Ninjetta," Jenny said frantically, "She's got my mom trapped on there! We have to rescue her!"

"But what about Asteroth?" Gaz said, "We can't just up and drop what we're doing just to go on a recovery mission!"

"Gaz," Jenny said, "You've said yourself that Mom has extensive knowledge about Asteroth, and she may be able to find a way to stop him! I'm sure she can help us if we hurry! Besides that, they're going to kill her!"

"She's right, Gaz," Ninjetta said, "We can't leave her behind! Besides, we need all the help we can get!"

"You have a point." Gaz said, "But that ship is up there, and we're down here. How in the heck are we going to get from down here to up there to save Dr. Wakeman?"

Brad suddenly interjected.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, but what is going on here?" he said, "Why did Vexus kidnap Dr. Wakeman, and why is she working with a really freaky looking clown?!"

"Freaky looking clown?!" Ninjetta said, spinning around, "You mean Joxer is here too?"

"Eh…" Brad shrugged, "I think that was his name…"

"Listen, we'll explain what's going on later. Right now, we got to save Mom!" Jenny said.

"But we still don't know how we're going to get up to that ship!" Gaz persisted.

"I think I know of a way to get to her," Jenny said thoughtfully, "with the new vehicle she built last week. It's sort of like an inner-space shuttle for Earth-to-Moon transactions."

"Dr. Wakeman built a space shuttle?!" Brad said excitedly, "This is wicked awesome! Can I drive?!"

"NO!" Jenny and Tuck said in emphatic unison.

Soon, Gaz and Jenny burst into the shuttle bay of Dr. Wakeman's underground laboratory. Danny, Kimi, Tommy, Sam, Tucker, Brad and Tuck followed them in as Gaz went straight to the computer in the shuttle.

"Jenny," Gaz said, "do you still have a lock on Vexus' ship?"

"Yes," Jenny said, still scanning the sky, "It's headed for downtown Los Angeles."

"Good," Gaz said, "keep your sensors on it. We can't afford to lose her trail."

"Downtown Los Angeles…" Ninjetta grated, "and Joxer is running around here too. That can only mean one person is behind all of this."

"Who?" Tommy asked.

"Matthews." Kimi said.

"You mean the Shadow Man?!" Tommy gasped.

"Bingo."

"But why can't it be Joxer and Assassina by themselves?" Tommy said, "Not to mention that Vexus lady and that creepy Vlad Plastic guy."

"Plasmius," Danny corrected, "and anyway, Vlad is pretty conniving, but this is too much for even him."

"Or Vexus." Jenny added.

"Or Assassina," Kimi added, "And Joxer is too much of a goof-off to even come up with anything _this_ contrived. But Stan Matthews is probably the only one who could have come up with this idea, and it might have been aided by Vlad, Vexus, Joxer and Assassina."

"Well according to the book," Gaz said, "this storm is going to be centered around wherever the Gems are as long as they're in reasonable distance from each other. So all we have to do is find out where this storm is centering, and we'll know for sure who's behind it."

"And what if the gems touch each other?" Brad gulped.

"Then Asteroth is released," Gaz answered grimly, "And all Hell breaks loose."

Suddenly, Gaz' screen blipped, and she pecked furiously at the keyboard.

"The storm is centered over the business district of downtown L.A., over the…Matthews Building."

"I knew it," Kimi spat.

"I don't understand though," Jenny said, "If they have all the gems, why aren't they releasing Asteroth?"

"They're waiting for us." Kimi said, glaring.

"Then we'd better not disappoint them." Gaz said, also glaring as she flipped the toggle switches on the headboard of the shuttle's ceiling. The shuttle's engine's fired up as Gaz motioned for the heroes to board.

Before closing the door, Gaz turned to Sam.

"You stay here," she said, "And I mean it. You need to stay out of harm's way and hold down the fort, clear?"

Sam glowered for a second, but then sighed.

"I understand." She said, as she, Tommy, Tucker, Brad and Tuck stepped back.

The door to the shuttle closed and it moved forward into the exit shaft. Danny, Kimi and Jenny strapped in as Gaz accelerated quickly out of the tube and launched straight into the air.

As they flew up toward the storm, a large bolt of lightning struck across the sky. Gaz quickly jerked the shuttle to avoid it, and guided the ship up into the clouds.

"Hold on," Gaz said, "this is going to get a little jerky."

No sooner did she say that, the ship lurched back and forth as Gaz held the controls firmly, trying to negotiate the turbulence. The three other occupants bounced back and forth in their seats. Suddenly, Danny was thrown back into his seat harshly, jarring the wound in his arm.

"AAAUGH!" he growled, "my arm!"

"At least your arm still works." Jenny remarked.

Kimi checked her side to see how well she'd started to heal up. Her gash started to shrink just a bit, but it was still rather large, and was still sore.

As the shuttle exited the furious storm cover, Gaz straightened out. Outside the front windshield, Vexus' ominous warship came immediately into view.

Suddenly, the shuttle's onboard computer blipped, and a red light on the control panel flashed. Ninjetta immediately sensed impending danger.

"They've seen us!" Ninjetta yelled, "They're preparing to fire!"

Gaz turned around to Ninjetta.

"How the heck do you…?"

"Gaz! Look out!"

Gaz turned back around suddenly, to see a large energy beam shooting straight at the shuttle. Gaz jerked the controls harshly and nosed up the small craft as the energy beam skipped along the bottom and rocked the occupants of the ship, again aggravating Kimi and Danny's wounds.

"Hang on!" Gaz said as she began to take evasive maneuvers.

The shuttle dove again, avoiding another blast and then curved up again.

"Jenny," Gaz yelled, "doesn't this stupid thing have any weapons?"

"No!" Jenny said, "It's only meant for transit!"

"You call this transit?" Gaz screamed as she dodged another blast, "I call this suicide!"

As the Ship lurched to its side as Gaz swung around to avoid anther energy blast, Kimi grabbed Danny.

"Danny," she said, "Can you make other objects intangible besides yourself?"

"Well yeah," Danny said, "As long as I'm touching them, but I've never ghosted anything this big and heavy before!"

"You've got to try, Danny!" Ninjetta said, "It's our only hope!"

"Come on Danny!" Jenny said, "You can do it."

"Wait," Gaz said, "We'll ghost too, right?"

Danny grit his teeth in determination,

"There's only one way to find out." He said, "We're going ghost!"

Danny put his hands on the walls of the ship and started to ghost them. However, he was only managing to get the side walls.

"This ship is just too dense!" Danny yelled as he started to struggle with the rest of the shuttle

"Come on Danny!" Kimi said, "You can do it!"

Danny bore down even harder and focused all of his strength into his hands, as even more of the ship began to disappear.

"That's it Danny!" Kimi and Jenny cheered, "You can do it!"

Danny struggled, as the ghosting started to slip back along the sides of the ship, he concentrated even harder.

"Yo, Ghost Boy!" Gaz called back to him, still trying to evade energy blasts from Vexus' ship, "we're not getting anymore invisible!"

"Quiet Gaz!" Ninjetta said, "He's trying!"

Danny started to grunt under pressure as he labored to ghost even more of the ship. Sweat started to bead on his forehead, but he finally got the back three quarters of the ship to ghost. Ninjetta and Jenny disappeared into intangibility with the rest of the ship as Danny focused on ghosting Gaz before getting the rest of the shuttle.

Suddenly, the nose of the ship and the lower half of Gaz' body ghosted abruptly as the ship progressed straight forward. Gaz looked down at the rest of where her body should have been in shock.

Right below her, was a little girl with white hair. She seemed to be struggling about as much as Danny, but still took the time to look up at Gaz and wink at her before ghosting the rest of Gaz' body. Thinking she was hallucinating, Gaz blinked and looked back down, but when she opened her eyes, the little girl was gone. Gaz could now see herself, the Odd Trio, and the rest of the ship, albeit transparently, but the little girl she could have sworn seeing was now gone. Gaz looked ahead to see shots still being fired at the ship, but they went completely through it. Gaz felt each beam as it passed through her, but it didn't hurt, and it couldn't make contact. She turned back around with a surprised and confused look on her face as the shuttle passed straight through the hull of Vexus' warship into a storage bay. Gaz set the ship down as Danny let go of his intangible hold on it. Suddenly Danny collapsed and phased back into his human form.

"Danny!" Jenny cried as she grabbed him and propped him back up against the wall.

"Danny! Are you alright?" Ninjetta said.

"Yeah I'm okay," Danny said, "That just really took it out of me."

"I bet he's still weakened from his fight with all those other ghosts." Gaz said, "Plasmius beat him pretty bad."

Danny stood up and phased back into the Phantom.

"I said I'm fine." He said fervently, "Let's go."

"Wait," Gaz said, "Did anyone else see that little girl?"

Danny's eyebrows quirked.

"What little girl?" he said.

"Yeah," Ninjetta said, "I didn't see any little girl."

"Me neither," Jenny said.

"You saw a little girl?" Danny persisted.

Gaz shook her head.

"No…" she said, waving her hand, "If nobody else saw it, then maybe it was just me. It's probably some sort of hallucinogenic side-effect from playing all those video games when I was a kid. Forget I said anything."

"Oh" Danny said, with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Gaz and The Odd Trio snuck out of the shuttle into the cargo bay of the ship. The roaring of the motors could be heard in the tremendous din that pulsated through the room. After she was satisfied that there were no guards around, Ninjetta huddled everyone together.

"Okay," She said over the roar of the engines, "We need a plan of attack. Jenny, is there any way you could find out where your mom's being held?"

"I think so," Jenny said, "I'd need a port somewhere so that I can hack into the ship's internal computer. From there I could find the brig, which is where Vexus said she was holding Mom."

"But where is there a port around here?" Gaz said impatiently.

"You have a better idea?" Jenny questioned.

"Well," Gaz said, "All the crew members of this vessel are linked to the same system as the ship's internal computer, aren't they?"

"I don't know," Jenny said, "They might be."

"Well for the sake of argument," Gaz said, "Let's just assume that they are. I say we overpower one and hack into the mainframe using _him_."

"Bad idea," Jenny said, "If these new cluster drones are anything like the old ones, they have a security system. If one's attacked, it sends a distress signal through the entire network."

Gaz grunted and pinched her eyes together.

"But if you successfully hack into the mainframe, you can override it, and they'll just write it off as a false alarm."

"I don't think that's going to work Gaz," Jenny said.

Gaz cut her off.

"Why the heck not?" she demanded.

"Guys, guys!" Ninjetta said, "Look we don't have time to argue. I think we should stick to a plan that isn't going to alert the whole New Cluster to our presence, false alarm or not. We have to get through this without being detected! We can't just go in guns blazing!"

Suddenly, two ant-shaped Cluster drones, which had been patrolling the cargo hold, spotted the heroes.

"Hey!" one of them said, "Hold it right there, humans!"

"So much for not being detected," Gaz said, rolling her eyes.

"Guns blazing it is, then!" Ninjetta yelled as she and the others scattered out of the way to avoid energy blasts from the drones.

"Alright, guys!" Ninjetta called, "Odd Trio, Attack!"

"Ahem!" Gaz cleared her throat loudly.

"Okay—Odd Trio _and Gaz_," Ninjetta added, "Attack!"

Danny formed an energy ball with his hands and blasted away the two drones before they could fire again as Jenny and Ninjetta rushed them.

Gaz stood back and attempted to open her PAK again. However, only two legs extended.

"Eh," Gaz shrugged, "better than nothing."

Four more ant drones flew in on wings and opened fire on the heroes. Danny and Jenny flew up at them, dodging their blasts. Suddenly, Danny disappeared as the drone that had been firing at him stopped short to look for where his adversary had disappeared to. Suddenly, Danny reappeared right in front of his face, dukes primed and ready.

"Boo!" Danny said as he threw a mighty punch at the drone, knocking his head clean off.

"That was it?" Danny said in surprise, "what a cheap hunk of—"

Suddenly, Danny was knocked back hard by another blast from a drone. Danny regained composure, and aside from jarring the wound on his arm, it didn't hurt.

It did however, really tick Danny off.

"You little punk," Danny spat as he flew into the offending drone, bashing it in the midsection and then flying back and sweep kicking its head off also.

"Huh." Danny thought, "That was way too easy, something must be up with these things."

Meanwhile Jenny was busy exchanging disruptor blasts with one of her own. She suddenly dove to avoid a blast aimed straight for her head, and then she swung her disabled arm hard into the ant drone's side, ripping off a side panel. A small spark shot from the injured drone's side as it twitched, too preoccupied to counter attack.

Jenny grabbed his arm and wrenched it behind him so hard that it broke off as she delivered a mighty kick to the drone's middle back, sending only its torso flying into and destroying the drone that Gaz was battling, as the legs, head, and remaining am stayed in place momentarily before gravity reached up and pulled them crashing to the floor.

Ninjetta found herself surrounded by two other drones. She stanced herself, katana at the ready as the two drones closed in on her. Suddenly Ninjetta drew back, flourished her sword and let out a loud "EEEEEEEEEEEEYAAH!" before she swiped at the heads of the drones.

The first drone held his arm up to block Ninjetta's blow, but it was immediately cut clean through as it swiped through the drone's other shoulder, effectively lopping both of its arms off in one strike. Ninjetta swung up again, but before she could decapitate the drone, it kicked her hard in her stomach, causing her to reel forward, clutching her wounded side. Both robots began to advance again, but Kimi just looked up with a smirk.

"Gotcha" she said as she swung her sword around slicing clean through the armless robot diagonally, and then wheeling around and swiping through the other drone several times in a repeated figure eight motion before finally skewering it straight through its oil pump and roundhouse kicking him off of her blade. The robot disintegrated into several shards of scrap metal before hitting the ground with a raining of small clangs.

"I'd have had that Jenny!" Gaz growled as Jenny landed next to her.

"Sorry," Jenny said, not really paying attention as she bent down to pick up the head of the barely-functioning robot that she'd disabled for Gaz.

"Hope this still works," she said as she extended a large plug from her finger and ripped off a panel on the drone's head to reveal several ports leading to its internal brain.

"Be sure to cancel the intruder alert," Gaz reminded her as Jenny plugged her finger into the drone's head.

The drone twitched and flailed, hooting in pain as Jenny hacked into his motherboard, shot down his firewall, and connected to the system. As she accessed the ship's floor plan, she mentally entered in "brig" and found the quickest path. Going farther, she accessed the vital readings of any prisoners in the brig. Wakeman was the only prisoner, and she was still very much alive, and still trying to break through the plastic casing that was entrapping her.

"Jenny!" Gaz said, "Hurry, before more drones come!"

Jenny quickly downloaded the floor plan, along with the quickest route to the brig and started accessing the security system. Suddenly, a powerful surge zapped Jenny hard, as Jenny ripped her finger out of the port with a yelp. Jenny jumped back and hit the floor hard with a shocked look on her face.

Her eyes suddenly went dark.

"Crap!" Gaz exclaimed as she ran over to Jenny, "they've nuked her!"

Kimi and Danny raced over to see what Gaz was talking about.

"What do you mean?" Kimi said worriedly.

"I mean," Gaz said, "she was hacking into the mainframe to find Dr. Wakeman when the droid zapped her! I think she's fried!"

"Fried?!" Kimi yelled

Suddenly her eyes lit up again, and a blue bar loaded across her eyes.

Below that was the word "restarting" with three little dots in an ellipsis lighting up sequentially as Jenny restarted.

"Man!" Jenny said as she fully came to, "The Cluster's Hacker-Zap system…How could I forget about that?"

The other three breathed a sigh of relief.

"You mean you're not fried?" Danny said.

"Well", Jenny said, "I could have been if I didn't disconnect when I did. Luckily, the system gives off a 1/8 second warning before it zaps you, so I didn't get the full force of the power surge. It only caused me to freeze and then restart."

"But you got the way to get to the brig, right?" Gaz said, "And you disarmed the security system?"

"Brig yes," Jenny said, "Security system, no. I couldn't get to it before they zapped me."

"Crud." Gaz glowered.

"All we have to do is go out that door, and loop halfway around the outer corridor of this level, and the brig should be on the right. But the intruder alert is still very much

in effect, so we may have to end up fighting our way there.

"Double crud." Gaz glowered again.

"Well," Ninjetta said, "Then we cut down anyone or anything in our path."

As they ran up to the door Ninjetta's Sense went off. She stopped short and readied her blade. "Victim number one, right through that door," she said.

"Well, technically, that'd be victim number seven." Danny said.

Ninjetta put her hand on the door to try to see if she could sense a better idea of what else they were coming up against. She withdrew her hand quickly with a gasp—there was a veritable army on the other side of that door, waiting for them.

"Okay, victims seven through one thousand seven," Kimi said, "right through that door."

"Triple crud."

"What?" Danny said, "Let me see!"

Danny disappeared and phased into intangibility as he stuck his head through the door. He was met with a sight of more robots than he dared to count. They resembled cockroaches, and all of them were armed to the teeth, weapons primed and ready to fire as soon as the doors slid open.

"Yikes." Danny said as he slipped back onto the heroes' side of the door.

"I was thinking 'eew', personally," Ninjetta said, "By there's no way we're gonna take on all of those. Especially since none of us are back up to 100 power yet."

"Speak for yourself," Danny said winking, as he ghosted back through the door.  
"Danny!" Kimi yelled quickly, but Danny had already flown to the other side of the door.

Danny flew invisible and intangible through the army until he got to the back of the ranks. He then materialized suddenly, and landed, drawing the attention of the roaches in the back.

"Hey you!" Danny teased as they al turned around, "Yeah, I'm talking to you; ya bunch of big, overgrown pests! Guess what?! Your mother wears combat boots!"

Danny pulled his lips apart with his fingers and razzed at the army.

Now being that they were cockroaches, the entire battle unit took this greatly into offense because they all had the same mother.

"GET HIM!" they yelled in unison before charging.

"Later!" Danny yelled as he suddenly disappeared.

He reappeared somewhere in the middle of the ranks in front of another roach.

"Hey, ugly boys! Over here!" He yelled as several of them turned around to face him. They opened fire all at once, but Danny disappeared immediately, and they only ended up shooting each other to bits and blasting a huge hole in their ranks. Danny did this several more times, each time, causing the roaches to blow each other up instead of hitting him.

Hey, Danny figured, while I'm at it…

Still invisible, he formed an energy ball with his hands and fired off at the robots one by one, but from scattered points. This only confused the roaches more as they continued to fire up at the ceiling, at the last point they'd seen any energy blasts coming from. Suddenly, a loud creaking was heard, and before any of the roaches could react, a large section of the ceiling caved in and came crashing down onto them, crushing the better part of their defenses.

Back inside the cargo hold, the girls winced with each and every blast they heard, occasionally sighing with relief every time they heard a taunting laugh coming from Danny. Suddenly, the doors to the cargo hold flew open, revealing an unscathed Danny Phantom.

"C'mon, girls!" Danny said grinning, "come and join the party!"

He flew aside to reveal only two roaches were left, and neither of them had any arms left on their bodies to speak of. As much as any look can wash over the face of a stationary-faced robot, a look that said nothing less than "Oh, crap," washed over the faces of the two doomed roaches.

Following a quick slash and a light bluish flash of a proton gun, The Odd Trio raced down the corridor, Jenny carrying Gaz, as they made their way to the brig as fast as they could.

Wakeman still sat in her prison chamber trying to mix together two chemicals she just happened to have on her, in hopes that the reaction would be powerful enough to eat through the plastic enclosure.

Suddenly, the door to the brig blasted open violently, jarring Wakeman, and causing her to toss the chemicals together onto the plastic casing. The two chemicals mixed together, but nothing happened.

However, on the other side of the blasted door, stood Danny and Jenny, the Ghost Boy's hands were smoking a light green wisp, and Jenny's laser gun extended and smoking an even heavier light blue.

Jenny stood up quickly retracting her gun.

"Mom!" she yelled.  
"XJ-9!" Wakeman cheered as Jenny ran up to the plastic casing.

"Stand back, Mom!" Jenny said as she pulled her fist back and started hammering away at the pane. The plastic shook harshly with every blow but still didn't break.

"What in the world is this?!" Jenny demanded furiously, "WHY—" she beat the casing, "WON'T—" she hit it again, "YOU—" and again, "BREAK?!"

An ant drone rushed up to the command deck of the ship.

"Overlady Vexus!" The drone said, "We're being invaded! XJ-9 has stormed the ship and she's brought company!"

Vexus wheeled around to face the ant, who immediately cowered in fear.

"Send in the roaches!" she bellowed.

"We—we already tried that, Your Excellency!" the drone said, "there was this human and he kept…disappearing, and he made the roaches all shoot themselves!"

"AAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH!!!" Vexus growled, "YOU INSIPID MORONS!"

With that Vexus produced a large laser rifle from her own arm and shot the drone's head off.

"Fine!" Vexus said as she stormed from the command deck, "I'll take care of this myself!"

As Jenny continued to hammer away at the plastic dome, Danny tried to get her attention.

"Jen!" He yelled, "Hey, wait up!"

"What?"

"You know the great thing about having a ghost friend is?" Danny said.

"Not now, Danny!" Jenny said, "I have to save my mother!"

"No, no," Danny said "hear me out."

Suddenly Danny disappeared again. He reappeared just as suddenly on the other side of the plastic casing, inside the cell with Dr. Wakeman, stopping quickly to introduce himself.

"Danny Phantom," he said holding is hand out to Wakeman, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Charmed," Wakeman said warily, not quite sure of what she just witnessed.

"It's okay," Danny said extending his hand farther, "I'm going to get you out of here."

Wakeman slowly took Danny's hand. And as soon as they made contact, she saw herself, and Danny Phantom go completely transparent. They quickly flew toward the casing, but before Wakeman could flinch, thinking she would impact the plastic again, she found herself solid again, and on the other side of the plastic casing. Jenny suddenly grabbed Wakeman and hugged her—a little too tightly.

"Mom!" Jenny cheered, "You're okay!"

"XJ-9!" Wakeman coughed, "I need to breathe, dear!"

"Oh!" Jenny said, setting her mother back down, "Sorry! But man, do we ever need you! Vexus has teamed up with a bunch of other villains and…"

"Yes, I know," Wakeman interrupted, "They're going to release the demon Asteroth on Humanity!"

"Does she do that a lot?" Gaz said, "Interrupt people?"

"Well yeah," Jenny said, "she's a very intelligent woman!"

"Shame you didn't inherit any of it," Gaz glowered.

Jenny dropped her mouth open in offense, but before she could say anything, a spot on the plastic suddenly began to wobble and warp spontaneously. The heroes looked at it perplexedly for a second, when suddenly, like a filmstrip melting on the reel, a large hole seared itself through the casing, creating a hole that Wakeman could've crawled through.

Wakeman scoffed, "Oh, _now_ it works."

Suddenly, the casing violently shattered on its own.

Jenny scoffed just as her mother did, "Oh, _now_ it breaks."

"Well, that's that," Gaz said, "Let's get the heck out of here."

"Good idea," Ninjetta said, "Before more of those roaches come."

"I'm definitely down with that idea," Danny said as the team took off running down the corridor back to the shuttle craft.

Moments later, Vexus stormed into the brig to find the shattered remains of her plastic dome-trap.

Vexus started to steam and overheat. Turning angrily toward the door, she started to growl gutturally.

Vexus rushed off down the hall, only to see the battlefield of massacred roaches and various disembodied parts laying on the ground. Beyond that she saw the cargo hold of the ship, doors wide open, but even worse there was a huge, gaping hole in the hull of the ship, leading to the outside.

Vexus grit her teeth and clenched her fists in extreme anger, growling and then screaming out at the top on her audial transmitters:

"WAAAAAAKEMAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!"

The ship broke through the cloud cover and hurtled back toward Prof. Wakeman's house.

Suddenly, Ninjetta stood up quickly as her sense radiated harshly from her neck.

"Oh no!" Kimi said, "They're following us!"

"What!?" Gaz said, "you mean the whole ship?!"

"It looks like the ship is retreating!" Jenny said, reading her homing signal.

"No," Ninjetta said, "That!"

Everyone looked out the back window to see a large swarm of Cluster Bees shooting back through the cloud cover, hot on the ships heels.

"Oh great," Gaz growled, "Just what we need, more company."

Gaz slammed the throttle lever down and pushed the engines to maximum speed, propelling the tiny craft as fast as it could go, but it was no use. The Bees advanced threateningly behind them.

"Come on!" Ninjetta said, "We have to fight them off!"

"Are you crazy?!" Gaz said, "There has to be hundreds out there!"

"Actually," Jenny said, "there are 93. I counted."

"Well 90-whatever or not," Ninjetta said, "We have to stop all of them before they stop us!"

"Right!" Danny and Jenny said.

"Wait, wait," Gaz said, "Danny and Jenny I can understand, but, uh, reality check, Ninjetta—you can't fly!"

"Don't worry about me, Gaz!" Ninjetta said, "You just get Dr. Wakeman back to her house and figure out a way to stop this. We'll take out the trash."

"Fine then." Gaz scowled, "I won't then."

"Right then," Danny said grabbing both Kimi and Jenny's hands, "We're going ghost!"

With that, Danny ghosted himself and the girls out of the ship as they flew up into the fray.

"But you are aren't you?" Wakeman said after they had left.

"I am what?" Gaz muttered.

"Worried." Wakeman said.

Gaz turned to Wakeman with a very surprised look on her face. She was taken very obviously aback.

"Wh—what makes you…what makes you say that?" Gaz stammered.

"You ARE worried aren't you?" Wakeman said.

"Er…well…" Gaz hesitated again, "not really."

"Gaz…" Wakeman said.

"Well, look, she's just a kid okay?" Gaz said, "Of course I'm gonna be a little…"

"In fear for her life?"

"Not another WORD, Wakeman!"

Ninjetta bounded off of one Bee, slicing it in half just as she leapt off of its head. She screeched a shrill war cry as she charged for another one.

Danny and Jenny shot at them one by one; however, the Bee swarm seemed to be stronger than the Mantises.

"Danny!" Jenny said, "Do you have enough strength back to do that—that _whoosh_ thing?"

"What _whoosh_ thing?" Danny yelled.

"That thing you did earlier!" Jenny persisted.

"You mean the Ghostly Wail?" Danny said.

"Yeah!"

"Well, it's worth a shot!" Danny yelled as he grabbed Jenny again.

"Ninjetta!" Danny called back to the White Kurenai, "Clear out!"

Ninjetta bounded off of the Bee she had just sliced through and jumped back toward the ground, slicing through a few more as she made her way towards Danny, who flew up and caught her.

As Danny and Kimi hit the ground, Danny turned back around and faced the horde of attackers.

"Alright girls," Danny said, "Cover up your ears, or whatever you hear with."  
Danny drew in a sharp breath and focused his ghost energy on his scream.

He let loose with his Wail, sweeping back several of the bees crashing into others and exploding, but the wail wasn't quite powerful enough to beat back very many of the advancing swarm. Suddenly, Danny cut his Wail short. He suddenly felt a head rush and swayed a bit.

"Danny?" Kimi said, "What's wrong?"

Danny shook his head and regained his composure.

"Nothing." He said, "Nothing's wrong. I'll try again."

Danny took in a deeper breath this time and let loose with another wail. However this one didn't do much either. The Bees were knocked back a bit but they overpowered the weak Wail and continued their charge. Meanwhile Danny stopped again and staggered back, falling to one knee.

"Danny!" Jenny yelled.

"Oh No!" Ninjetta yelled, "They're getting closer, and Danny's still too weak from that fight to—"

Danny suddenly stood up.

"Weak nothing!!" he said in offense, "Take cover! This could get ugly!"

Danny mustered all his strength, took a deep, determined breath and let loose his wail so powerful that, despite their speed, the Bees stopped dead in midair for a fraction of a second, before the reverberation of the Wail finally overpowered their velocity and sent them flying back into each other, exploding violently. Those that didn't collide with others tried to fight back against the forceful Wail, only to see legs and wings and other exo-skeletal panels ripped clean from their bodies, sending them crashing into and disabling other Cluster Bees behind them. Jenny took advantage of the situation and grabbed Ninjetta, carrying her airborne as Kimi shot off even more webbing at the condensed group of Cluster bots, Spinning them together into a tight cocoon. As the Wail stopped, Jenny set Kimi down onto a rooftop below and flew up to the ball of webbing and Cluster Bees and opened up her chest again producing the large cannon. Out of her arms came the laser guns and from her legs came even larger disruptor guns. Out of her sides came two banks of large stinger missiles.

"Oh, what's that?" Jenny smirked, "Your friends didn't tell you about this? Maybe THIS is why!"  
With that, Jenny fired each of her weapons at once, sending off a deadly barrage that not only lit up the sky above Tremorton as it connected—it knocked Jenny back straight into the ground, plowing up a trail.

Ninjetta bounded off of the building and ran to Jenny.

"Jenny!" Ninjetta yelled, "Are you okay?"

Jenny stood straight up with a broad smile on her face.

"Am I EVER!" she laughed gleefully, "Did you SEE that?! I totally _vaporized_ those creeps! Man, I guess I don't know my own strength!"

"Yeah," agreed Kimi, "That was Awesome…hey where's Danny?"

Jenny and Kimi suddenly looked off to where Danny had been standing.

He'd been laying there, completely unconscious, phased back into his human form.

"Danny!" The girls yelled as they ran back over to him.  
"Jenny!" Kimi cried, "is he okay? How are his vitals?"

"They're sort of weak; his heartbeat is a little slower than normal!" Jenny said worriedly, "Should I try waking him up?"

"Man!" Kimi said worriedly, "I knew he was too weakened to do that Wail!"

Suddenly, Danny stirred with a sore-sounding moan, and stiffly clutched his aching head.

"Danny!" Jenny yelled, "You're okay!"

"Who're you calling 'weak'?" He smirked.

Ninjetta smirked back.

"You're such a guy." She said.

Later, from Jenny's house, a rather harsh and painful scream cut through the howling wind.

"Danny!" Jenny called to him as her mother's service bots welded her new arm back into place, "Hold still! That treatment's not going to work if you keep on flailing around like that!"

Jenny was laying on a tilted platform as the machines operated on her. She drank an oil can with her free hand. One of her lower legs was missing as more service machines repaired the rocket booster in her foot and re-paneled her sole.

"But…it…HURTS!" Danny howled.

"But it's working." Gaz said dryly as she operated the machine that Danny had stuck his arm into.

"I see your yelling strength is back," Kimi snickered as she paced around the room.

"But…it—YEOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!" Danny caterwauled again.

"You want a turn in this, Kimi?" Gaz said turning to Ninjetta.

"Er…" Kimi faltered, "No, I'm fine, I'm uh…"

Kimi checked her wound to see if it had healed up. A smallish scab still remained, surrounded by pinkish scar tissue, which fortunately, would dissipate in a few days. She prodded it slightly, to notice that it was still a bit tender, but otherwise didn't really hurt.

"I'm good." Kimi said.

Gaz simply rolled her eyes and turned back to "torturing" Danny.

Professor Wakeman meanwhile, had entered the room accompanied by the other teens and little Tuck.

Sam saw Danny flinching with his arm in the machine and it continued to work on him. She noticed that Danny had developed quite a muscular tone in his deltoids and biceps since he'd started fighting ghosts…No doubt his pecs too…she wondered…

"What are you starting at, Sam?" Danny said when he noticed that she wasn't really moving, but staring straight ahead with a rather intent look on her face.

Sam snapped herself back into reality. "Uh…nothing…nothing at all."

Suddenly Danny winced. The wince almost immediately turned into a grimace, which was then followed by a yelp, which—mid-yelp—turned into a full-bore scream.

"Danny!" Sam yelled as she ran over to him.

"Ah he's just being a big baby," Gaz said "he's done, anyway."

Sam turned around to Gaz angrily.

"Oh, and I suppose that you get a real kick out of hearing him screaming in pain." Sam shot back at Gaz.

"What the hell is that supposed to imply?" Gaz said, raising her voice in offense.

"You're a sadistic old bat!"

"You judgmental little—"

Tommy turned to Tucker.

"Is Sam always this protective of Danny?" he asked him under his breath.

"Yeah," Tucker said, rolling his eyes a bit, "More so lately."

"Wonder why."  
"Oh she's got it bad," Tucker said, "That's why."

"Got what bad?" Tommy said.

"Oh, _you know_." Tucker said winking his eye.

Tommy chuckled, "Riiiight."

"YOU KNOW, COMMON SENSE WOULD SAY, 'Oh, he's saying, 'Ow!,' I guess that means it hurts, I'd better stop it!" BUT NOOOOOO! YOU HAVE TO KEEP TORTURING THE GUY!"

"WOULD YOU RATHER HE WALK AROUND WITH A BIG OOZING, FESTERING LESION ON HIS ARM?!"

"OH, LIKE THAT'LL MAKE IT GO AWAY!"

"Actually," Danny piped up, "It did!"

Sam turned to look, and on Danny's arm, just above his elbow, where the wound had been, was absolutely nothing. No scar, not so much as a scratch.

"Wh— how?" Sam stammered. She turned to Gaz. The dark woman just shrugged her shoulders tersely.

"I dunno," she said, "It's Wakeman's machine."

"And that," Wakeman interrupted, "Is a trade secret as to how it works. It's just a prototype, and I haven't gotten a patent for it yet. Even then, I should probably keep it a secret…"

"That's Amazing!" Kimi said, "Imagine how useful this could be in a hospital!"

"Quite." Gaz said, "Wakeman actually invented something useful."

Jenny scoffed in offense as the service bots began to reattach her lower leg. Gaz slowly turned around to her, glanced at her, said nothing, and returned back to the conversation.

"But now to the topic at hand," Gaz said, "How are we going to stop the bad guys from calling forth Asteroth, and if worse comes to worse, how do we stop him?"

"Yes, how?" Wakeman said holding her chin and tapping her foot as she so often did when she was thinking.

After a moment, Wakeman spoke again.  
"Quite a complex conundrum," she said.

"Well, Mom?" Jenny said, "Do you have any idea how we can stop this from happening?"

"Well," Wakeman said slowly, and then paused again.

"Well," She continued, "I haven't the foggiest idea. I'm sorry, but I may not be of much help right at the moment."

A loud "WHAT!?!" rose up from the room as everyone yelled in unison.

"So what are we supposed to do," Gaz exclaimed, "Just sit by idly and wait for the world to end?!"

"Oh, heavens no!" Wakeman exclaimed. "But if we're going to develop a plan, then we'll need an intensely focused grounding session. I'm sure that, given enough time, Professor Membrane and I could devise a plan to stop this monster from annihilating us all."

"Of course." Gaz mentioned.

"However," Wakeman said, turning to the three heroes, "I need you three to go there and try to delay them as much as possible."

Wakeman then turned to the others, "You five will assist Professor Membrane and I."

"We won't let you down, Mom!" Jenny said.

"That's my girl!" Wakeman smiled proudly.

Meanwhile, back in Downtown Los Angeles, inside the Matthews Building, Stan Matthews stood at his window, arms folded behind his back, three puffs of cigar smoke escaped from his mouth as he watched the tempest storm assail the city below. Behind him sat Joxer, Assassina, Vexus and Vlad.

Joxer sat sprawled out in his chair, tapping his foot impatiently, his face stiffly resting on his clenched fist.

Assassina leaned over to Joxer.

"Why is he just standing there like that?" She asked him, "What does this accomplish?"

"Oh, don't you know?" Joxer said in a mocking tone, "It's what _all_ evil Geniuses do."

"That's quite enough, Alan." Stan muttered from his perch.

Joxer grunted and crossed his arms in frustration.

Suddenly there was a slight tap at the door.

"Enter!" Stan boomed without moving.

Wilson entered timidly walking a wide arc around where Joxer sat, so as to avoid him. Joxer merely rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Wilson?" Stan said staidly.

"Sir, we have confirmation that the three kid heroes are on their way."

"Excellent."

"The Guards are primed and ready for attack once they get here."

"Good. Send the Guards home, Wilson." Stan said as smoke puffed from his mouth.

"Sir?" Wilson asked, confused.

"Send the Guards home, Wilson."

"But…why?"

"I was raised in the darkness, Wilson," The Shadow Man snarled, "This is something you wouldn't understand."

_ Red out is a reddening of the vision and possible loss of consciousness (similar to a blackout), which is the result of blood pooling in the head either from negative G-forces or hanging upside down for too long. Redouts are potentially dangerous and can cause retinal damage and hemorrhagic stroke_.-source: Wikipedia


End file.
